Page 55 - Plastics News August 2024

FEATURE NEWS

in any literature, other than by cases not follow- caused by material ageing.
ing standard manufacturing or installation pro- SOURCE – BPF
cedures. Significantly, no failure was found to be

Most ‘compostable’ bioplastics are anything but,

says new report

lastic trash has become one of the most and “compostable” plastics not only fail to live
visible global environmental crises of our up to their sustainable promise — they could be
Ptime. Single-use plastics make up nearly harming ecosystems, farms that source bioplas-
half of all plastics produced, with 15 million met- tic-contaminated compost, and people.
ric tons of plastic now entering the ocean an- ‘Worthless’ bioplastic compost
nually — equal to two garbage trucks dumping
their loads into the sea every minute.

Plastics are everywhere: Found pole to pole, in
clouds, drinking water, the stomachs of whales
and seabirds, with bigger pieces degrading into
centuries-lasting, often toxic micro- and nano-
plastic particles that make their way into food
and the human body — including our brains,
breast milk and testicles.

With the next, and hopefully final, U.N. global
plastics treaty negotiations set for a year-end
meeting in Busan, South Korea, developing na- Many consumers will be surprised to learn that a
tions suffering the brunt of the crisis are call- certified plastic cup or container labeled as com-
ing for limits on plastic production. But industry postable can’t be put in backyard compost. It
groups propose a different solution that would can often only be broken down under controlled
allow single-use plastics production to continue conditions at a commercial composting facility,
apace: compostable and biodegradable bioplas- to which most communities lack access.
tics.
What’s more, according to the report, most U.S.
But as Mongabay recently reported, emerging commercial and municipal composters don’t ac-
research shows that bio-based plastics — made cept compostable packaging, with only 46 of
from corn, sugar beet, sugarcane, cellulose and 173 U.S. industrial composters reporting they do.
other organics — can be just as toxic as petrole- One reason is that organic farms, the main cus-
um-based plastics. tomers of composting facilities, aren’t allowed
under current U.S. Department of Agriculture
Now, a new report from Beyond Plastics, an rules to use compost derived from compostable
NGO, makes a strong case that “biodegradable” bioplastic packaging due to chemical contami-

August 2024 PLASTICS NEWS 57