Now the good news, there is a plastic bottle that will be better for the environment. I know!!! Wait let me tell you the story. It was found that in 1996, only 40% of plastic bottles were recycled. Amazingly ten years later that number dropped to 23%. Of course you figure in the fact that more plastic bottles were manufactured and people will tell you that we were recycling more in volume, but not nearly as much of a percentage. Anyway Planet Green Bottle has created a plastic bottle that will disintegrate a plastic bottle in 8 to 10 years instead of the regular thousands of years by using a Reverte™ Oxo Biodegradable additive. I can't tell you how it works but you can read about it on the website by clicking on the link above. It's a bit over my head but I like the results.
So now what are you gonna do?
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Planet Green's bottles are oxo-biodegradable. To fully understand what that means, keep reading.
The Evolution of Biodegradable Plastic
Biodegradable plastic is plastic that biodegrades into humus when disposed of, due to the action of the micro-organisms that turn dead plant life into humus, the organic part of soil. The result is a rich and fertile soil.
There have been three generatons of biodegradable plastic. The first was starch based plastic, PLA, almost always made out of corn. The second generation was oxo-biodegradable conventional plastic, and the third, the current generation, is biodegradable conventional plastic.
PLA, or corn-based plastic
PLA, or corn-based plastic, was the first generation of biodegradable plastic. It is still made and promoted by corporate giants that have huge financial and political power, such as the Dow Chemical Company, Cargill, Inc., and Archer Daniel Midlands, but it has many drawbacks.
It is billed as 'sustainable,' as it is based on food sources, primarily corn. However, if all of the disposable plastic products in the world were made out of corn, 150,000,000 tons of corn would be used to make plastic. Prices for corn would rise dramatically, and third world hunger would increase even more dramatically. There are currently 850,000,000 hungry people in the third world. If we imagine that condition worsening greatly, the result could only be a humanitarian catastrophe of appalling proportions. That is the real ramification of 'sustainability' in today's world.
Furthermore, PLA isn't a very good plastic. It imparts an off taste to water when used for water bottles, it melts when used as soup spoons, it's weak, and therefore items made of it are heavy, it has a short shelf life, and it often starts to decay before use, while still on the shelf. What's more, almost no recyclers accept it for recycling. In fact, recyclers dislike PLA and are trying to ban it, because it gets confused with more conventional plastics, and ruins their recycled plastic batches.
The state of California is promoting this product by limiting the use of the term biodegradable, and all synonyms for biodegradablilty to PLA, which decays within 120 days in commercial (not home) composting facilities. Unfortunately PLA decays so fast in an oxygen-free (anaerobic) environment (typical of landfills,) that it generates methane in landfills before they are capped to tap the methane. Generating methane quickly in landfills is undesirable because it is a potent greenhouse gas. If it is generated before the landfill is capped, it outgasses into the atmosphere, promoting global warming. (Click to see video about using methane from landfills.)
Oxo-Biodegradable Plastic, the Second Generation of Biodegradable Plastic
The second generation plastic oxo-biodegradable plastic was very different than the the previous generation of biodegradable plastic called PLA, starch-based plastic, or 'spudware. Oxo-biodegradable plastic had many advantages over PLA-It was invulnerable to water, one might adjust it to the desired biodegradation rate, some products could contain recycled content, it could be recycled, it didn't diminish the grain supply, it was stronger, less expensive, and was made from an otherwise useless industrial byproduct, naphtha.
This second-generation biodegradable plastic is little known in the US, but is is well established and widely used in Europe. Tesco and Carrefours, the largest grocery chains in the world, and in France, respectively, package their customers' groceries in oxo-biodegradable 't-shirt' bags. In fact, the largest bakers in Mexico and South Africa package bread in oxo-biodegradable bags, and oxo-biodegradable plastic is becoming common in India and China. The US is so far behind the curve on this, that it is a little embarassing.
Oxo-biodegradable plastic doesn't biodegrade when deeply buried in landfills, because it requires an initial phase of degeneration which required certain environmental factors-oxygen and one of the following three circumstances-heat, UV light, or mechanical stress-and because the subsequent biodegredation part of the degredation only works in oxygenated environments. These circumstances don't exist when deeply buried in landfills, so oxo-biodegradable plastics don't have any benefit for products deeply buried in landfills.
The Third Generation of Biodegradable Conventional Plastics,
which are used in our products.
There is now a third generation biodegradable product which is the standard plastic we use daily, naptha based plastic, with an additive that will cause it to biodegrade without the need of heat, UV light, mechanical stress, or oxygen. This third-generation plastic is called biodegradable plastic, and it biodegrades when placed into the ground due to the action of micro-organisms naturally occurring in soil. We are now using the third generation additives in all of our products. It has all of the benefits of oxo-biodegradable plastics-it is recyclable, is invulnerable to water, one may adjust the desired rate of biodegeneration, some products can have recycled content, it doesn't diminish the grain supply, and it is stronger, less expensive, and made of an otherwise useless industrial byproduct.
Additionally, this new plastic will definitely biodegrade when buried in the ground in either aerobic or anaerobic environments, ie. in a land fill. Like PLA, this new plastic will produce small amounts of methane in a land fill if deeply buried, but not so quickly as PLA, and like PLA, it will produce small amounts of carbon dioxide as a result of the metabolism of micro-organisms if it decomposes in the presence of oxygen.
With this new generation of biodegradable plastic, bidegradation is delayed long enough that there is time to cap the landfills, so the methane is burned off or even used to generate electricity, as is being done in almost 500 US land fills currently. Like all of our products, this new plastic is recyclable and completely non-toxic to people, plants, and animals, and is made of ingredients approved by the FDA for food contact.
In our view, by using conventional biodegradable plastic we are following in the footsteps of the plains Indians, who used every part of the buffalo, the chief resource in their environment. We take an industrial byproduct that used to be wasted and turn it into useful packaging materials and other disposable items. Then the disposable items are turned into humus, to the benefit of the soil and the plants it nurtures. Waste gasses from the conversion process are then used to make electricity. We thus have progressed from wasting an asset to generating three benefits from it for people and our planet.
Our Products
We currently offer biodegradable plastic disposable items of the third generation type: Plastic t-shirt bags, garbage bags, produce bags, straws, cutlery, water bottle preforms and deli containers and lids. We are rapidly expanding our product line, so please check back for more products.
Product sales: We sell only by the container load. We do not distribute our products in retail or even small wholesale quantities.
-by Tim Dunn, published at http://biogreenproducts.biz
Thanks Tim, you did a much better job explaining than I ever could!
Hey, Uncle Sam
I love you, too!
Love, Jordan
P.s. I like all the information from Tim
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