What is Biodegradable Plastic? Is It Sustainable?

Final Up to date on June 25, 2024

You’ve most likely heard the time period “biodegradable plastic” earlier than: However what precisely does that imply? 

Effectively, technically plastic is already biodegradable. Every part is. All biodegradable actually means is that it’s going to ultimately break down.  

Nevertheless, plastic doesn’t break down in the identical means one thing like an apple or banana would: It breaks up into microplastics and continues to leach into the atmosphere or landfill over time. 

On high of this, plastic takes lots of of years to interrupt down, and when it does, it simply turns into microplastics.  

Actually, people have created 8.3 billion metric tons of plastics since large-scale manufacturing started within the early Fifties, most of which nonetheless reside in landfills or the pure atmosphere. In different phrases, all of the plastic we have now used remains to be right here, in a single type or one other. 

Biodegradability just isn’t the perfect: Being compostable is. When you may compost one thing, meaning it would ultimately break down (often in a shorter time span) and turn out to be a part of the soil. Each virgin and recycled plastic can not do that. 

Due to this fact, for the sake of readability, once I discuss with “biodegradable plastic” for this submit, I’m speaking about bioplastics, aka, plastics which have compostable components.  

Right here’s all the pieces you must find out about biodegradable plastic, if it’s truly sustainable, and what manufacturers are utilizing it. 

what’s the drawback with biodegradable plastics? 

The issue with biodegradable plastics is that not all of them are compostable. Some biodegradable plastics are comprised of a mixture of supplies each renewable and petrochemical primarily based.  

For instance, bio-based PET is a polymer that’s partly (as much as 30%) produced from plant biomass, equivalent to sugar. The remaining is comprised of plastic, which suggests it would by no means utterly decompose.  

It’s vital to grasp that one thing might be biodegradable, but not compostable. In different phrases, sure, it would break down over time, but it surely is not going to add any useful vitamins to the soil throughout this course of.  

Listed here are a number of different points biodegradable plastics face.

not recyclable 

Individuals will generally mistake biodegradable plastics for precise plastic and add them into their recycling bins. That is very true if the fabric resembles plastic. 

Many recycling amenities do not need the appropriate equipment to recycle biodegradable plastics. This implies it would usually find yourself in landfills. 

restricted entry to industrial composting 

Not everybody has entry to industrial composting amenities, which is commonly what’s wanted to interrupt down biodegradable plastic. In conditions like this, biodegradable plastics will find yourself within the trash, or contaminate a recycling bin. This fully defeats the aim of it being compostable. 

For biodegradable plastics to be sustainable, they should be collected and paired with the appropriate restoration methods, in order that the fabric stays within the loop and out of the atmosphere. 

For those who don’t have entry to industrial composting amenities, Lomi could possibly be a possible answer to this drawback. Lomi is a Sensible Waste Equipment that may match on a countertop and breaks down your meals scraps (and sure biodegradable plastics) inside a number of hours utilizing warmth, abrasion, and oxygen. 

used to make disposables 

One final concern with biodegradable plastic is that it will probably usually be handled like a stand-in for plastic. In different phrases, it will probably proceed to encourage a disposal tradition that’s not sustainable.  

Even when the biodegradable plastic you’re utilizing is compostable, it’s nonetheless wasteful to make use of it simply as soon as the place a reusable merchandise will do. For instance, utilizing a reusable fork rather than a biodegradable plastic fork is the higher different.  

Biodegradable plastic, even when compostable, nonetheless requires vitality and sources to make. If we deal with it like a single-use merchandise, it’s a waste. As an alternative, we should always concentrate on utilizing bioplastics to make sturdy merchandise that may be reused (like Pelacase’s telephone circumstances!). 

RELATED: 9 Eco Friendly Phone Cases to Protect Your Phone 

do biodegradable plastics truly biodegrade? 

Sure, biodegradable plastics do truly biodegradable. Technically, all the pieces is biodegradable.  

Biodegradation can take wherever from a number of days (for vegetable scraps) to over 500 years (for a plastic bag). 

When an object biodegrades, its authentic composition breaks down into less complicated parts like biomass, carbon dioxide, and water. 

Nevertheless, biodegradable plastics which have compostable components may do extra than simply break down – they’ll biodegrade into soil conditioning materials (aka compost), which is nutrient-rich and incorporates no dangerous residues.  

how lengthy does it take for biodegradable plastic to decompose? 

Biodegradable plastics can take three to 6 months to decompose totally, relying on what they’re comprised of. That is a lot faster than plastic, which might take a number of hundred years to biodegrade into microplastics. 

Precisely how lengthy a biodegradable plastic takes to interrupt down will depend on a number of elements, equivalent to temperature, quantity of moisture current, and the supplies used to make it. 

Nevertheless, sure Lomi-approved biodegradable plastics might be damaged down in just some hours utilizing Lomi! Right here’s a full checklist of Lomi approved packaging and products it will probably break down.

Moreover, listed here are some bioplastics making waves within the trade for his or her innovation.

so is biodegradable plastic sustainable? 

Sure, biodegradable plastic is sustainable if it has these qualities: 

• Is compostable (yard or industrial)  
• You may have entry to a restoration system (aka, an space to compost it in, like entry to industrial compost amenities) 
• It’s not simply single-use (however somewhat used to make sturdy objects that may get reused). The few exceptions to this embrace compostable food scrap bags and compostable Band-Aids, like Patch (for sanitary causes).

If these situations are met, biodegradable plastic might be an progressive answer to think about. 

What are your ideas on biodegradable plastic? Let me know within the feedback!