Degradable plastic, though more technologically advanced than it’s been in the past, is nevertheless still a big question mark. We hear about new additives that supposedly break down into carbon dioxide within 8 to 24 months of the day the plastic is extruded. This poses some very real problems. Extruded film may sit on a factory floor for anywhere from a day to 2 months before being printed, and then perhaps an additional month before being converted into bags. In our marketplace, these finished bags might then sit in boxes for a period of a day to 6 months before being used or even shipped to the end user. Much of the time lag between extrusion and decomposition of the plastic may well pass before the final product has had a chance to fulfill its purpose.
In theory, this approach to going green is gallant and culturally correct. However, it leaves little room for error in regard to stock rotation and inventory control; the last thing a bank, armored car company or retailer needs is to discover that its inventory of deposit products – essential to the operation of the business – has gone stale. The biodegradability approach can lead to companies stuffing landfill with once-good product that decayed in inventory without ever having been used. What’s more – as I’ll discuss later – burial in landfill may actually halt the decomposition process entirely. In my opinion, the promotion of biodegradability would lead to an increase in plastic production to make up for the plastic that will inevitably become unusable while still on the shelf. How can we promote sustainability with a program that would likely result in an infusion of even more plastic into the marketplace?
This practice also can have drastic implications for the recycled plastic industry. How can we control what gets included in the recycling stream? If plastics containing degradable additives are mixed together with those that don’t use such additives, would the products manufactured from this recycled plastic have the necessary durability? It’s fair to assume that if such additives found their way into, say, a deck made from recycled “plastic wood”, then the deck could actually lose its structural strength or even start to decompose.
All of the research indicates that the 3% additive needed to make plastic decompose renders the product virtually non-recyclable. This cannot be the approach we take in order to be responsibly green. All resin suppliers are of the same conviction, in that we are all firm believers in recycling. A comprehensive recycling program that reuses all of the post-production and post-consumer waste will result in less plastic production than will a program of biodegradability.
Biodegradability is floated in the market as the solution for saving the planet. But here’s a paradox: While biodegradable plastic products may start to decompose in air or in boxes to the point where they’re no longer usable, biodegradable waste and garbage will only fully decompose in a true composting environment. To date, there are only two commercial composting facilities in operation in the entire United States of America (one in Pittsburgh and another in San Francisco).
The notion of using biodegradable additives to permit us to throw our waste plastic in the garbage is one founded on very little information. Biodegradable plastic bags buried in regular landfill will not decompose. Landfill decomposition requires perfect sunlight and PH balance of the soil in order for the necessary microbes to attack the product. In cases where a TDPA additive for degradability is present, the microbes will attack only the actual additive, which represents just 3% of the overall material content of the bags. Therefore, 3% of the overall material buried in landfill has a remote chance of being attacked and decomposed, while the other 97% – if it breaks down at all – will break down into plastic sand. With plastic sand blowing in the air, there is a greater chance of ingestion of harmful particles by animals than there is of saving the environment. A pound of plastic buried in the ground in any form – plastic bag or plastic sand – is still a pound of plastic in the ground.
In doing the research for this commentary, it was found that the Walmart supplier scorecard awards no points for the use of degradable plastic. I did find one company that does produce a viable degradable additive, providing the degradable plastic is certain to be placed in a microbial environment. Unfortunately, nobody can offer such a guarantee. Large resin producers (names available upon request) completely dismiss degradability as fiction. The companies that make the additives will offer no guarantees of shelf life and no claims that they actually work outside of a composting environment. Every large chemical company petitioned stated that their mantra is REDUCE, REUSE, RECYCLE.
Plastic is not the evil enemy that people make it out to be. However, degradable plastic may very well be. As a rule, we do not put degradable additives into our products for fear that our clients will have product decompose while still in the boxes. More importantly, we don’t do it simply because we feel it is harmful to the environment. We are more than happy to add substances to degrade plastic if a client feels that it will enhance its product, but we would do so with a disclaimer. We do not believe in the practice and will not be responsible for product deteriorating in a box before it is used if even the manufacturer of the additives can’t nail down an exact time of decomposition. Eight to twenty-four months is simply too broad a window to deal with when producing high-quality products.
In conclusion, I believe that the inclusion of degradable additives in plastic resin is merely a cover up and a way of making ourselves feel better. We’re simply hoping that these miracle additives will take care of the trash so that we can ignore the fact that we’re creating so much of it. These additives are designed for use in commercial composting and not as a rationalization of waste creation. Until there is enough composting available to handle the waste of the entire continent, “degradable” will be nothing more than an overused fancy term for what is really just plain old trash. If we choose recycling, we can save the planet a great deal of waste. If we choose degradability under the present conditions, we are simply creating far more trash than we ever imagined.
