“Biodegradable” simply means something will be broken down by microbes over time, which is true for most materials on the planet. An aluminum can is “biodegradable”… if you wait 200 years. Since this term applies to almost everything, it is a pretty meaningless claim and one that has been significantly abused through greenwashing. In contrast, “compostable” means something will break down in a reasonable amount of time, leave behind no toxic residue, and safely become an additive to soil.
Our Bagasse/ Sugarcane products will generally be able to breakdown in home composting, however we cannot give a guarantee on timescale.
We recommend disposing of PLA products in a commercial compost facility where they can be broken down, turned into compost and then returned to the soil. Home composting typically does not create the consistent composting conditions needed for these products, but commercial facilities can manage just fine.
If you are resident in South Africa please use this website https://www.mywaste.co.za/web/index.asp to find your nearest organic waste facility. As our products are so new not all of these facilities will accept compostable packing, so it’s worth checking with your nearest facility first.
In Zimbabwe, we are currently working with a few industrial composting facilities to test our products and should be able to provide more information on this soon.
Many organizations and communities are setting up their own private composting facilities. This works particularly well in office blocks, hotels, hospitals, universities or anywhere that there is a controlled environment – it takes care of food waste disposal costs as well as providing compost for your grounds or to sell on to. Diverting one tonne of food waste through composting can reduce greenhouse gases by approximately one tonne Co2 that would have been released if it went to landfill. If you would like more information on how to do this, we can put you in touch with the relevant specialists.
In the absence of industrial composting, our products should be discarded in general waste, however even if our products end up in landfill, they will emit up to 75% less greenhouse cases that PET.
The environmental benefits to compostable products are much more than just end of life composting.
Finite Resources The earth has finite resources. Disposables are used for such a short time, so it makes sense to switch to renewable materials, reserving conventional plastics for applications where they can’t be easily replaced. Our products are made from renewable resources such as corn and sugar cane rather than crude oil and natural gas. BP’s estimates put the remaining Oil supplies at about 50 years although if we are to hit our carbon budget it is estimated that we need to leave between 75-80% of these reserves untouched!
Carbon Footprint Bioplastic offers a significantly reduced carbon footprint versus traditional oil-based plastics. This is because the plants used to make the bioplastic absorb as much CO2 as they release. Traditional plastic on the other hand releases CO2 that would otherwise have been trapped underground in the Crude oil.
A 2017 study determined that switching from traditional plastic to corn-based PLA would cut U.S. greenhouse gas emissions by 25 percent [5] Less Toxicity
Bioplastic is also less toxic and does not contain bisphenol A (BPA), a hormone disrupter that is often found in traditional plastics [4]
Better Energy Generation Incineration studies from NatureWorks [1], show that their PLA bioplastic produces more heat than newspaper, wood or food waste; also that it produces no volatile gases and leaves little residue.
Reduced Greenhouse Gases In landfill, studies have shown that compostable packaging is inert and does not give off methane.[2] PLA bioplastic gives off 75% lower greenhouse gas emissions than PET, even if both end up in landfill. [3]
[1] https://www.natureworksllc.com/What-is-Ingeo/Where-it-Goes/Incineration
[2] https://www.natureworksllc.com/What-is-Ingeo/Where-it-Goes/Landfill
[3] http://floreon.com/resources/articles/bioplastics
[4] https://phys.org/news/2017-12-truth-bioplastics.html
[5] https://phys.org/news/2017-12-truth-bioplastics.html#jCp