There is a lot of concern about the growing plastic pollution problem, and rightly so.  Did you know?

* Plastic bottles take hundred or thousands of years to begin biodegrading
* 150 billion plastic beverage bottles are produced each year
* 70-80% of plastic bottles are not recycled
* 100 billion plastic bottles end up in landfills, roadsides, streams or oceans
* The average American consumes 167 bottles of water a year
* Bottled water is the second most popular beverage in the United States
* A majority of containers today are made from plastic

It seems that a lot of interest is being placed on bottled water, but take a look at the shelves where you shop; almost everything is packaged in plastic.  Bottled water has become an easy target; many of us think that because our tap water is safe, it must be safe everywhere else.  I wish that were true, most places in the world don’t have safe drinking water.  We should be focusing on the pollution caused by all plastics and insist that plastics be designed to be sustainable.  Sustainable plastics regardless of what it is made from, petroleum or plants should be biodegradable and designed to meet“Cradle to Cradle,” design criteria.  A cradle to cradle product is made from something, used, reused, recycled and when its useful life is over, it returns to the earth as a harmless substance.

The problem is that we consumers are confused we don’t understand what is biodegradable, what is compostable, what is the carbon foot print, etc?  Market experts know we’re confused and have designed their campaigns to keep us that way.  Here’s an example, Polylactic acid or polylactide (PLA)is a plastic made primarily from corn but can be made from other plants, is marketed as biodegradable and compostable.  Making plastics from corn may sound like the perfect utopian answer for solving all our plastic pollution problems, but everything in PLA land isn’t what it seems to be.  PLA made from corn increases use of pesticides, is made from genetically altered corn, reduces food crops, raises food prices, and does not biodegrade any quicker than standard plastic in a landfill.  A huge problem with PLA is that it isn’t easily recycled and for proper disposal, it must be processed in a commercial composting site.  There aren’t many commercial composting sites here in the U.S. and some that do exist won’t accept PLA that is made from genetically altered corn. The bottom line is that PLA can’t be composted in your backyard compost pile and with the limited number of commercial sites here in the U.S., most PLA will end up in the garbage dump where it will languish for thousands of years, right along with other plastics.

Beware spin masters, consumers are getting smarter and we want products that don’t harm us or our future generations.

Max

http://www.ensobottles.com

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Biodegradable Plastics, what does it mean and why is there so much confusion about something that sounds so simple to define?  The ASTM defines biodegradable plastics as “a degradable plastic in which the degradation results from the action of naturally-occurring micro-organisms such as bacteria, fungi, and algae”.   Sounds simple enough, so why all the confusion?   The confusion really comes from two aspects; 1) confusion between using the term degradable vs. biodegradable and 2) the loose use of the word biodegradable.

On the market today there is really three categories of plastics that biodegrade or degrade.  Those technologies are PLA (Polylatic Acid), Oxo-degradable and a new technology called EcoPure.  So now that we know what is out on the market how do we know which ones biodegrade vs. degrade?

PLA is a bioplastic made from starch; specifically it is being manufactured by starches from genetically modified corn.  This technology and supporting organizations such as BPI (Biodegradable Products Institute) claim that PLA biodegrades.  However, this claim is confusing because they are using the term “biodegradable” extremely loosely.  PLA is a “compostable plastic” in that it goes through “degradation” to break down not true “biodegradation”.  PLA does not break down or biodegrade in a landfill and will only begin to “degrade” after being exposed to heat (specifically 140° for over a five day period).  This kind of environment can only be found in a commercial composting facility.  We find that many of the articles and organizations who support PLA are greatly contributing to the confusion by not using correct standards based definitions of that technology.  What remains behind once PLA composts is CO2 and with professional composting facilities they are currently not capturing any gases so all gases are released into the atmosphere.

Now let’s move onto Oxo-degradable, as the name implies this technology causes the product to degrade.  This particular technology incorporates the use of an additive that begins to break the plastic chains when exposed to oxygen, heat and moisture.  Although this technology is fairly upfront with the type of degradation taking place the marketing materials suggest that once the pieces of plastic have broken down into small enough fragments that it creates the opportunity for microbes to finish those plastic fragments through biodegradation.  This aspect may be true but it extremely difficult to validate as the plastic fragments must have degraded to the micro level.  There are various reports as to what remains in the soil and air once an Oxo-degradable product has degraded.  This ranges from heavy or low metals, salts, CO2 and CH4; because many of these products will degrade in a landfill the gases of CO2 and CH4 will be captured and burned.

Moving on to the final technology we find Bio-tec Environmental EcoPure.  EcoPure is the technology behind the ENSO Bottle.  This technology also is applied in the form of an additive to existing polymers.  The technology behind EcoPure is that uses organic compounds to open the polymer chain and attractants to stimulate microbial colonization on the plastic.  Because the polymer chain in open the micro organisms can use the carbon chain as a source of food and energy.  Because this is happening at the atomic level what remains is CO2, CH4 and inert humus and because many of these products will degrade in a landfill the gases of CO2 and CH4 will be captured and burned.

So there we have it, an explanation of the differences between biodegradable and degradable.  Now that we know the difference between the two it still leaves the bigger question of which technology and method is better for the environment; biodegradable or degradable?  In order to answer that question would require another blog, however you should always keep in mind that the overall net impact to the environment.  When trying to answer that question keep in mind the following; using food to create plastics, pesticides that effect water, total water consumption, total fossil fuels used in processing, greenhouse gases emitted in processing and breaking down, the benefit of the product, does the biodegradation or degradation create any benefits such as clean energy?

By – Danny Clark

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