The other day, there was a little misunderstanding on Twitter. Someone asked where he could take compostables in Decatur, just outside of Atlanta, GA. He meant things like food scraps and coffee grounds, but someone got a little mixed up and thought he meant “compostable” plastic cups. It made me realize that I had no idea how to find commercial composting facilities near me.
This particular fellow wasn’t looking for commercial composting, but it did get me thinking…where can folks take that compostable dishware? It doesn’t decompose in a regular compost pile, but instead requires very high temperatures to break down, which you’re really only going to get in a commercial facility.
Most cities don’t have easy access to municipal composting, so what does that mean for all of that “green” compostable plastic? How green is it really?
Unless you’re lucky enough to live somewhere like San Francisco with residential, curbside composting, the bulk of that corn plastic, or PLA, is probably headed to the landfill where it won’t break down at all.
There are also concerns from the recycling industry. You can’t toss that corn plastic in the recycle bin, but many folks do. The increased manpower to sort out bio-plastic from recyclable plastic means increased costs for recycling facilities. As more and more of this stuff enters the market, it becomes more of an issue.
The last concern about food-based plastics is just that: they’re food-based. Instead of using land to grow food for people, farmers are growing corn for plastic. That means a higher price tag on corn overall. Remember the riots in Mexico back in 2007 because of biofuel’s impact on corn prices?
Bioplastic does have some upsides. Unlike the oil that makes up conventional plastic, corn and potatoes are renewable; we can grow more relatively quckly. In order to receive certification, compostable plastic also must not release toxic materials when it breaks down.
There is also a difference between compostable plastics and biodegradable plastics. The latter will break down in the natural environment, but they don’t have the same regulations about releasing toxins as compostable plastics do. I’ve also seen plastics labeled “biocompostable,” but couldn’t find any information on how that’s certified.
If you’re looking to find commercial composting in your area, the EPA has a lookup tool broken out by region on its site. Unfortunately, the link for Georgia-based facilities seems to be broken. There are also state-by-state resources, but not all of these are for commercial composting facilities.
So what do you guys think? Is bioplastic more trouble than it’s worth, or do its benefits outweigh its issues?
Image Credits:
Compostable Cup. Creative Commons photo by boojee
Compostable. Creative Commons photo by dklimke
Uh, and they’re GMO corn. A trojan horse. Not green at all, imo.
The claims in this article are, plain and simple, inaccurate. PLA/bioplastics do not impact corn prices. I am involved in the industry and have seen the data. Stating otherwise is untrue. Also, bioplastics are not causing an issue in the recycling issue as of now because there isn’t enough in the recycling stream. I’m involved in recycling industry trade associations and know this first hand. Don’t make bioplastics out to be bad when they actually save resources, emit fewer greenhouse gases , and have a significantly better life cycle and carbon footprint than conventional products.
Contact me at http://www.ecoramblings.com if you want more info/details as to why bioplastics are good.
Luke, I have to disagree with you here. My concerns regarding the impact on the food supply and the recycling stream are based on these products taking off. You’re right - they’re not huge problems at the moment because bioplastics are not widely used. Yet.
As we need more and more corn to produce more and more corn cups, we’ll be diverting more and more from the food supply. We’ve seen what happens with that when we look at first gen biofuels.
Concerns about bioplastics’ effect on recycling, as I stated in the article, will grow as more and more of these materials enter the waste stream.
I did give a nod to bioplastics’ upsides at the end of the post, but I’m not sure they’re much better than plastics made from fossil fuels. Ideally, no plastic would be fantastic.
Becky, I’m happy to discuss this directly with you if you’d like.
Cups (made from bioplastics or oil-based plastics) are not accepted into 99% of the recycling facilities in America. They are a contaminant and pulled from the recyclers’ lines. So, it doesn’t matter if the cup is made from PLA or PET, it won’t be recycled when it actually goes through the recycling facility, even if a consumer puts it in the blue bin. Since you claim that bioplastic cups are a contaminant, you are correct. However, conventional plastic cups are also contaminants and have no possibility for landfill diversion whereas bioplastics at least have the possibility if composting is in your area. Bottles are really the only shape of product accepted in 99% of recyclers, and PLA is not made into bottles except in close-looped locations with composting. I invite you to join me at the Plastic Recyclers Conference in Austin next week.
Relating to corn prices, PLA (when at full capacity for all bioplastic plants in the world) would only use .001% of the world’s corn supply. That isn’t going to happen anytime in the next several decades or longer. Also, the corn used is feedstock corn, not the corn you eat on your table. I realize feedstock corn competes for farmland table corn, but there are more macroeconomic issues that affect price - value of the dollar (corn exports are the #2 channel for corn sales), 3rd world demands, demand for soybeans and other crops, price of oil, and the list goes on. The US produced more corn last year on 7M fewer acres and all the corn still wasn’t sold.
Lastly, PLA emits 53% fewer greenhouse gases during production than PET. You can’t say that isn’t a better carbon footprint