Biodegradable Plastic Challenge
Many of us may wonder why biodegradable plastic is not widely used, despite its presumed ability to decompose in a shorter amount of time than conventional plastic items.
Apart from the higher price for production (2-10x`s more expensive), biodegradable plastic do not meet as many environmental performance expectations than anticipated.
Here are just a few examples:
-
Contaminate conventional recycling streams; negative impact on recycled material quality
-
Does not degrade in ocean
-
"Biodegradable" perception encourages littering
-
Thicker to achieve same performance as conventional plastic. For example, the minimum required thickness for a biodegradable produce bag is 16 microns; Conventional produce bags generally need to be only 7 microns thick
-
Tends to degrade slowly
Maybe not so environmental friendly after all, for now.