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With focus shifting toward plastic alternatives that reduce waste and toxicity for the environment, many people are interested in learning more about the different bioplastic alternatives on the market and which are the best options.
The best bioplastic alternatives on the market currently include polylactic acid (PLA) made from fermented plant starches and biodegradable plastic, made partially from renewable resources.
The term &#;bioplastics&#; is used a lot when you search for plastic alternatives such as compostable or biodegradable plastic. Bioplastics is a term used for a range of plastic alternatives that are made from renewable sources such as organic materials. These plastics are more sustainable and environmentally friendly than traditional plastics.
Bioplastics are considered safer for the environment from their manufacturing process which uses less resources and produces lower emissions, through to their ability to be disposed of and return to natural matter.
Bioplastics are made from renewable materials such as corn starch, tapioca starch and others. This means that when they are disposed of correctly, they reduce waste. They are able to be either quickly broken down (when it comes to landfill disposal) or composted back into the earth.
Polylactic acid or PLA is being hailed as perhaps the most popular bioplastic currently on the market, due to its ability to be used widely as a plastic alternative. PLA is typically made from fermented food starch often from corn, sugarcane, sugar beet pulp or cassava and combined with lactic acid and cyclic di-ester lactide.
Being made from organic materials results in a compostable, renewable, sustainable and ethical plastic product. Contrary to thermoplastics (a lot of your typical plastics) which are petroleum-based, PLA is produced from raw materials. However, this doesn&#;t impact its main properties which are comparable to other plastics, making them a rapidly popular less impactful plastic for mindful consumers.
PLA is used for cold food service items such as cups, salad containers, deli posts, lids, bags (such as trash bags) and clear windows in sandwich boxes or bags and is transparent. PLA is also recognized as non-toxic which allows it to be utilized in medical environments such as medical implants, orthopedic devices and drug delivery systems.
Being manufactured from raw materials means that PLA can be composted either in a home composter or industrial composting facility and returned to its natural form. The manufacturing process is overall more sustainable and environmentally friendly than that of traditional plastics as no toxic fumes are released and it uses less electricity and water.
In the same family as PLA is crystallized PLA. This form of PLA is heat resistant and useful for food service items such as cutlery, takeaway food containers, coffee cup lids and soup containers. It is not transparent but often seen as white unless charcoal is added to create a black color.
You can read more about PLA and CPLA in this article.
In addition to PLA and CPLA, there are several other compostable plastics available &#; some not as accessible or as low in price as PLA. In a similar fashion to PLA, these are made from renewable or organic materials such as tapioca starch, soy protein, potato and cellulose.
Cellulose nanofibers can be found in wood waste and also coffee grounds. Coffee grounds have most recently been used to make transparent coffee cups and straws. Compostable plastic can also be made from seaweed blended with the polysaccharides found in seeds such as avocado, jackfruit and durian. They can also be manufactured from algae or wastewater byproducts which contain polysaccharides (mainly starch-based, proteins and alternative carbon sources).
Many of these materials aren&#;t yet as popular as cornstarch for various reasons such as their limited applications, more complex manufacturing process and lower availability.
Read more about compostable plastic alternatives in this article.
Bioplastics is a blanket term for any plastic material produced from renewable biomass sources, which also includes biodegradable plastics. Biodegradable plastic is made from a mix of renewable materials and some traditional plastic components, with materials such as the sugar from corn and sugarcane or other vegetable starches which are converted into polylactic acids.
Biodegradable plastic takes less time than traditional plastic to break down, speeding up a process that takes centuries, to months or a couple of years. This is due to the addition of special microbes in the materials that help it to break down faster. This means that a biodegradable plastic bag or other item may break down in mere months.
Although biodegradable plastic is classed as bio-based or a bioplastic due to the large amount of organic materials, these plastics still include toxic chemicals similar to conventional plastic, which can leave toxic sludge behind when decomposing.
You can read more about biodegradable plastics in this article.
There are many benefits when using bioplastics, particularly for the environment. Some of these benefits include:
Bioplastics are typically 100 per cent degradable (or compostable)
They are versatile, sustainable and strong
The manufacturing process has a reduced carbon footprint, uses less energy and water and also produces less greenhouse emissions
Bioplastics &#; excepting biodegradable &#; don&#;t contain harmful chemicals
When decomposed (for compostable items) they will return to a natural state such as water, air or soil.
Compostable plastics will completely decompose and biodegradable plastics will break down into smaller pieces, leaving behind a slight toxic residue.
With the use of bioplastics becoming increasingly popular, however, along with all the positives for choosing bioplastics, there are some drawbacks to be aware of. These include:
Bioplastics won&#;t decompose in landfill and contribute to the waste issue. Unless biodegradable, they must be placed into a composter or worm farm.
The increase in demand for bioplastics creates competition for raw materials and food sources.
Bioplastics can contaminate recycling streams as people aren&#;t aware of how to dispose of them correctly.
Some confusion around compostable plastics can result in littering or people disposing of compostable items such as dog poop bags in the environment.
Biodegradable plastic will leave behind a toxic residue in landfill and also can&#;t be composted and will contaminate the other waste if disposed of this way.
Find out more about how to best dispose of bioplastics and the composting process here.
Bioplastics are seen as being a great alternative for the environment when compared with conventional plastics, due to the lower environmental footprint left by manufacturing and disposal methods. When it comes to choosing the best alternative, it does depend on how you will dispose of the plastics.
Compostable can be seen as the best option due to its ability to break down into completely natural components when disposed of correctly.
Here are some of the top benefits of compostable plastics:
Reduces contributions to landfill.
Reduces toxicity left behind in landfill (compostable plastics leave behind none and biodegradable low amounts).
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Less greenhouse gas emissions during manufacturing.
Low water and energy consumption during the manufacturing process.
Safe for humans, animals, wildlife and the environment.
Provide great fertilizer when composted (compostable plastics only).
What all this means, is that if you are willing to dispose of your compostable plastics in a home composter, industrial composting facility or a worm farm, then compostable plastic provides a great option for you.
However, if you would prefer to continue to dispose of your waste through landfill &#; i.e. general home bins or public bins &#; then you should choose biodegradable plastic alternatives.
It&#;s important that a deeper understanding of bioplastics is understood when looking at the best options for you. Understanding that bioplastic is a broad term that covers many plastic alternatives is key. Also knowing how you will dispose of the items will help to make your best decision.
Reading this article means that you are interested in reducing your waste, environmental footprint and making better choices. This is a great first step toward this goal! There are many bioplastic alternatives on the market, with PLA and CPLA being the most commonly used.
They are both compostable and compostable plastics are made from natural and renewable materials, meaning they can be completely decomposed into natural matter. This is a great move for the environment!
You can also be sure of some high-quality fertilizer through home composting or worm farms. With bioplastics being a term used for a range of plastic alternatives that are made from renewable sources such as organic materials, you can be sure these plastics are more sustainable and environmentally friendly than traditional plastics.
Their manufacturing process also uses less resources and produces lower emissions, through to their ability to be disposed of and return to natural matter. Biodegradable plastics are also another bioplastic, however, it is not able to be composted and will leave behind some toxic residue in a landfill environment.
When disposed of correctly, all bioplastics are a better, more sustainable and environmentally friendly option than traditional plastic.
Bioplastics are often touted as being eco-friendly, but do they live up to the hype?
The world has produced over nine billion tons of plastic since the s. 165 million tons of it have trashed our ocean, with almost 9 million more tons entering the oceans each year. Since only about 9 percent of plastic gets recycled, much of the rest pollutes the environment or sits in landfills, where it can take up to 500 years to decompose while leaching toxic chemicals into the ground.
Traditional plastic is made from petroleum-based raw materials. Some say bioplastics&#;made from 20 percent or more of renewable materials&#;could be the solution to plastic pollution. The often-cited advantages of bioplastic are reduced use of fossil fuel resources, a smaller carbon footprint, and faster decomposition. Bioplastic is also less toxic and does not contain bisphenol A (BPA), a hormone disrupter that is often found in traditional plastics.
Kartik Chandran, a professor in the Earth and Environmental Engineering Department at Columbia University who is working on bioplastics, believes that compared to traditional plastics, &#;bioplastics are a significant improvement.&#;
However, it turns out that bioplastics are not yet the silver bullet to our plastic problem.
Since there is often confusion when talking about bioplastics, let&#;s clarify some terms first.
Degradable &#; All plastic is degradable, even traditional plastic, but just because it can be broken down into tiny fragments or powder does not mean the materials will ever return to nature. Some additives to traditional plastics make them degrade more quickly. Photodegradable plastic breaks down more readily in sunlight; oxo-degradable plastic disintegrates more quickly when exposed to heat and light.
Biodegradable &#; Biodegradable plastic can be broken down completely into water, carbon dioxide and compost by microorganisms under the right conditions. &#;Biodegradable&#; implies that the decomposition happens in weeks to months. Bioplastics that don&#;t biodegrade that quickly are called &#;durable,&#; and some bioplastics made from biomass that cannot easily be broken down by microorganisms are considered non-biodegradable.
Compostable &#; Compostable plastic will biodegrade in a compost site. Microorganisms break it down into carbon dioxide, water, inorganic compounds and biomass at the same rate as other organic materials in the compost pile, leaving no toxic residue.
Bioplastics are currently used in disposable items like packaging, containers, straws, bags and bottles, and in non-disposable carpet, plastic piping, casings, 3D printing, car insulation and medical implants. The global bioplastic market is projected to grow from $17 billion this year to almost $44 billion in .
There are two main types of bioplastics.
PLA (polylactic acid) is typically made from the sugars in corn starch, cassava or sugarcane. It is biodegradable, carbon-neutral and edible. To transform corn into plastic, corn kernels are immersed in sulfur dioxide and hot water, where its components break down into starch, protein, and fiber. The kernels are then ground and the corn oil is separated from the starch. The starch is comprised of long chains of carbon molecules, similar to the carbon chains in plastic from fossil fuels. Some citric acids are mixed in to form a long-chain polymer (a large molecule consisting of repeating smaller units) that is the building block for plastic. PLA can look and behave like polyethylene (used in plastic films, packing and bottles), polystyrene (Styrofoam and plastic cutlery) or polypropylene (packaging, auto parts, textiles). Minnesota-based NatureWorks is one of the largest companies producing PLA under the brand name Ingeo.
PHA (polyhydroxyalkanoate) is made by microorganisms, sometimes genetically engineered, that produce plastic from organic materials. The microbes are deprived of nutrients like nitrogen, oxygen and phosphorus, but given high levels of carbon. They produce PHA as carbon reserves, which they store in granules until they have more of the other nutrients they need to grow and reproduce. Companies can then harvest the microbe-made PHA, which has a chemical structure similar to that of traditional plastics. Because it is biodegradable and will not harm living tissue, PHA is often used for medical applications such as sutures, slings, bone plates and skin substitutes; it is also used for single-use food packaging.
While bioplastics are generally considered to be more eco-friendly than traditional plastics, a study from the University of Pittsburgh found that wasn&#;t necessarily true when the materials&#; life cycles were taken into consideration.
The study compared seven traditional plastics, four bioplastics and one made from both fossil fuel and renewable sources. The researchers determined that bioplastics production resulted in greater amounts of pollutants, due to the fertilizers and pesticides used in growing the crops and the chemical processing needed to turn organic material into plastic. The bioplastics also contributed more to ozone depletion than the traditional plastics, and required extensive land use. B-PET, the hybrid plastic, was found to have the highest potential for toxic effects on ecosystems and the most carcinogens, and scored the worst in the life cycle analysis because it combined the negative impacts of both agriculture and chemical processing.
Bioplastics do produce significantly fewer greenhouse gas emissions than traditional plastics over their lifetime. There is no net increase in carbon dioxide when they break down because the plants that bioplastics are made from absorbed that same amount of carbon dioxide as they grew. A study determined that switching from traditional plastic to corn-based PLA would cut U.S. greenhouse gas emissions by 25 percent. The study also concluded that if traditional plastics were produced using renewable energy sources, greenhouse gas emissions could be reduced 50 to 75 percent; however, bioplastics that might in the future be produced with renewable energy showed the most promise for substantially reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
While the biodegradability of bioplastics is an advantage, most need high temperature industrial composting facilities to break down and very few cities have the infrastructure needed to deal with them. As a result, bioplastics often end up in landfills where, deprived of oxygen, they may release methane, a greenhouse gas 23 times more potent than carbon dioxide.
When bioplastics are not discarded properly, they can contaminate batches of recycled plastic and harm recycling infrastructure. If bioplastic contaminates recycled PET (polyethylene terephthalate, the most common plastic, used for water and soda bottles), for example, the entire lot could be rejected and end up in a landfill. So separate recycling streams are necessary to be able to properly discard bioplastics.
The land required for bioplastics competes with food production because the crops that produce bioplastics can also be used to feed people. The Plastic Pollution Coalition projects that to meet the growing global demand for bioplastics, more than 3.4 million acres of land&#;an area larger than Belgium, the Netherlands and Denmark combined&#;will be needed to grow the crops by . In addition, the petroleum used to run the farm machinery produces greenhouse gas emissions.
Bioplastics are also relatively expensive; PLA can be 20 to 50 percent more costly than comparable materials because of the complex process used to convert corn or sugarcane into the building blocks for PLA. However, prices are coming down as researchers and companies develop more efficient and eco-friendly strategies for producing bioplastics.
Kartik Chandran and Columbia students are developing systems to produce biodegradable bioplastic from wastewater and solid waste. Chandran uses a mixed microbe community that feeds on carbon in the form of volatile fatty acids, such as acetic acid found in vinegar.
His system works by feeding wastewater into a bioreactor. Inside, microorganisms (distinct from the plastic-producing bacteria) convert the waste&#;s organic carbon into volatile fatty acids. The outflow is then sent to a second bioreactor where the plastic-producing microbes feed on the volatile fatty acids. These microbes are continually subjected to feast phases followed by famine phases, during which they store the carbon molecules as PHA.
Chandran is experimenting with more concentrated waste streams, such as food waste and solid human waste, to produce the volatile fatty acids more efficiently. The focus of his research is to both maximize PHA production and to integrate waste into the process. &#;We want to squeeze as much as we can [out of both systems],&#; said Chandran.
He believes his integrated system would be more cost-effective than the methods currently used to produce bioplastic that involve buying sugars to make PHA. &#;If you integrate wastewater treatment or address food waste challenges with bioplastic production, then this is quite favorable [economically],&#; said Chandran. &#;Because if we were to scale up and go into commercial mode, we would get paid to take the food waste away and then we would get paid to make bioplastics as well.&#; Chandran hopes to close the loop so that, one day, waste products will routinely serve as a resource that can be converted into useful products like bioplastic.
Full Cycle Bioplastics in California is also producing PHA from organic waste such as food waste, crop residue such as stalks and inedible leaves, garden waste, and unrecycled paper or cardboard. Used to make bags, containers, cutlery, water and shampoo bottles, this bioplastic is compostable, marine degradable (meaning that if it ends up in the ocean, it can serve as fish or bacteria food) and has no toxic effects. Full Cycle can process the PHA at the end of its life, and use it to make virgin plastic again.
Pennsylvania-based Renmatix is utilizing woody biomass, energy grasses and crop residue instead of costlier food crops. Its technology separates sugars from the biomass using water and heat instead of acids, solvents or enzymes in a comparatively clean, quick and inexpensive process. Both the sugars and the lignin from the biomass are then used as building blocks for bioplastics and other bioproducts.
At Michigan State University, scientists are trying to cut production costs for bioplastic through the use of cyanobacteria, also known as blue-green algae, that use sunlight to produce chemical compounds through photosynthesis. Instead of feeding their plastic-producing bacteria sugars from corn or sugarcane, these scientists tweaked cyanos to constantly excrete the sugar that they naturally produce. The plastic-producing bacteria then consume the sugar produced by the cyanos, which are reusable.
Stanford University researchers and California-based startup Mango Materials are transforming methane gas from wastewater treatment plants or landfills into bioplastic. The methane is fed to plastic-producing bacteria that transform it into PHA, which the company sells to plastic producers. It is used for plastic caps, shampoo bottles or biopolyester fibers that can be combined with natural materials for clothing. The bioplastic will biodegrade back into methane, and if it reaches the ocean, can be digested naturally by marine microorganisms.
The Centre for Sustainable Technologies at the University of Bath in England is making polycarbonate from sugars and carbon dioxide for use in bottles, lenses and coatings for phones and DVDs. Traditional polycarbonate plastic is made using BPA (banned from use in baby bottles) and the toxic chemical phosgene. The Bath researchers have found a cheaper and safer way to do it by adding carbon dioxide to the sugars at room temperature. Soil bacteria can break the bioplastic down into carbon dioxide and sugar.
And then there are those developing innovative ways to replace plastic altogether. Japanese design company AMAM is producing packaging materials made from the agar in red marine algae. The U.S. Department of Agriculture is developing a biodegradable and edible film from the milk protein casein to wrap food in; it is 500 times better at keeping food fresh than traditional plastic film. And New York-based Ecovative is using mycelium, the vegetative branching part of a fungus, to make Mushroom Materials, for biodegradable packaging material, tiles, planters and more.
Right now, it&#;s hard to claim that bioplastics are more environmentally friendly than traditional plastics when all aspects of their life cycle are considered: land use, pesticides and herbicides, energy consumption, water use, greenhouse gas and methane emissions, biodegradability, recyclability and more. But as researchers around the world work to develop greener varieties and more efficient production processes, bioplastics do hold promise to help lessen plastic pollution and reduce our carbon footprint.
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