A Canadian firm (Bi-Ax) has released a biodegradable plastic film. They advertise that it takes 65% less fuel to produce, and can be made from corn that is not used to feed humans.

How biodegradable is it really?

At WestFest, they used 'biodegradable' corn plastic cups, but they could only actually be biodegraded at a special facility that achieves high temperatures.

Posted by: Milan on July 7, 2009 8:37 AM

Ah, Milan, it's an excellent question. I suspect, from an examination of their online literature that you don't want to just toss those utensils in your compost heap. Presumably they would say -- that's not a bug, it's a feature. :-) The idea being, I guess, that you won't have your plastic utensils rot on the shelf. They don't say why the heat of an ordinary compost heap won't do the job, though.

Quote from their Q&A (bold mine):

How can Evolon packaging film be disposed of?

Evlon plastic offers more end of life options than any other material. It can be physically recycled, composted industrially, incinerated, put in landfill, and even recycled back into its original lactic acid state.

Posted by: Mark Tovey on July 7, 2009 8:53 AM

If the plastic is meant to be recycled, it should not be biodegradable. Recyclers want the plastic to remain as undegraded as possible.
http://www.cbsm.com/forums/index.lasso?p=9243

If an item is meant to be composted, it cannot be made from plastic, including so-called "biodegradable plastic" which I feel is complete greenwash. Compostable plastic vs. degradable plastic vs. oxobiodegradable... all excellent ways to completely confuse consumers. An article that somewhat covers this:
http://driveit.clickspace.com/message/1049825/1000448#Calgary%20Dollars

Posted by: Anna on October 27, 2009 3:52 PM

Anna,

Thank you for an elegant parsing of the situation, and some helpful references! The more complicated this gets, the more contamination we're likely to see, alas.

It would be great to see bags which were very clearly labeled as to both their provenance and to their eventual disposition. In fact, this principle could apply to more than plastic bags.

Part of the difficulty for the people who label the products, one would presume, is that different jurisdictions have different policies on which plastics can be recycled. Including a barcode or semacode on each plastic product could be helpful for localizing. If you could scan the product with your cell phone, your cell phone could be programmed with local recycling policies, and could give you simple answer to how you should or could dispose of a particular item.

Of course, you wouldn't even need a semacode on the item. If there were a standard way of coding for a municipality's recycling opportunities, this could be done by selecting from a list on a website, which could then tell you how that item is processed in your community (and perhaps suggest reuses or alternate dispositions if that item is not processed in your jurisdiction).

Mark

Posted by: Mark Tovey on October 28, 2009 11:48 AM

Please note that, while disagreement is fine, insults and abuse are not, and will result in the comment being deleted and a likely ban from commenting.