Throwaway plastic has found its way into various aspects of our lives. As awareness of the detrimental impacts that plastic can have on the environment has exploded in recent years, environmentally friendly alternatives are becoming increasingly common.
Biodegradable plastics are one set of materials that are becoming a popular replacement as consumers demand green alternatives. Rather than remaining stable for hundreds of years, biodegradable plastics can be broken down by microbes in the air, chewed up and turned into biomass, water and carbon dioxide. A smaller group of them are compostable, which means that not only are they broken down by microbes, but they can also be turned into compost. Most biodegradable and compostable plastics are made from plants rather than fossil fuels and depending on the application you need them for, there are plenty to choose from.
The biggest potential area of impact for compostable plastics is in food service. From coffee cups to sandwich packaging to takeaway containers, putting food in compostable plastics means that the plastic and any food waste still stuck to it can be composted together. It’s a double win: reducing the amount of plastic being sent to landfill and at the same time making sure food waste is returned to the soil, not left to rot in landfill where it will release methane. By reducing the amount of traditional plastics that contaminate food waste, we can at least ensure that some of that wasted food is eventually used as compost, rather than ending up in landfill or incineration.
There are some other applications suited to biodegradables too. Traditionally, farmers in Europe have used sheets made from polyethylene mulch over crops to prevent weeds growing and to conserve water, with around half of this plastic ending up in landfill after it’s used. But since 2019, a new European biodegradability standard for these mulches means that farmers can buy plastic that they can plough back into the field safe in the knowledge that it will break down and not harm the soil. Industry, too, is beginning to use bio-lubricants used to keep machines running smoothly rather than fossil fuel -based ones. Progress made by countries like Italy - where single - use bags for produce and baked goods must be compostable, and can be recycled as part of widespread food waste collections - shows that solutions to some of our plastic problems are indeed possible.