When I encountered my first 'compostable' plastic fork (at my favourite Poutinery no less) I was stoked. Yay! I thought. I'll just take that fork and stick it in the ground and away we go, bye-bye plastic.
But, like many changes, it's not that simple. So here are
3 reasons we should think twice before jumping on board the 'bio-plastic' wagon.
1- PLANT PLASTICS DRIVE UP FOOD PRICES FOR THOSE IN NEED.
Most Compostable, plant based plastics, are made using cheap, readily available crops like corn, these are also cheap and valuable food sources that drive up the price of that food source in countries that already struggle to afford basics.
2- NOT ALL PLANT PLASTICS ARE BIODEGRADABLE
Bio-based plastic doesn't necessarily mean it will biodegrade, it just means it is made from plant based materials. To biodegrade, microbes need to 'feed' on it and turn it back into soil, which leads to point 3.
3- MOST PLANT PLASTICS ARE COMPOSTABLE, BUT NOT BIODEGRADABLE
Huh? Compostable means it'll be sent to a commercial composting facility where it will be heated up and broken down. If that same plastic were to wind up in your backyard compost - or soil - it would behave like and other plastic. Furthermore, most commercial composters can only handle a small amount of bio-plastics, so if we switched ALL plastics to bio-plastics, we would 'bung' up the system.
Does this mean plant-plastics are 'BAD' and anyone who promotes them is greenwashing jerk-face? Of course not, it's just that they're useful in some situations, but maybe not all.
NOTPLA, A company from the UK, makes a plastic film from Seaweed. They're still in early stages of development ie. not mass market just yet, but their solution doesn't compete with food sources and it can decompose EVERYWHERE. We've chatted a bunch with them over the years and we're just waiting for them to be more commercially ready.
We've talked to a couple of companies that have developed plastics from FOOD WASTE, which means they solve ALL of the issues above. Right now though, they have only developed a 'rigid' plastic, but it's a really exciting alternative that we will keep our eye on.
We currently package our powders in bags from TekPak solutions. Their paper bags are lined with a thin 'biodegradable' plastic film that will decompose everywhere - from backyards to landfills. The downside is that the film is still petroleum based, but for now, we love that it biodegrades EVERYWHERE.
