Dispelling myths about bio-based materials
TerraCycle tom szaky Include USA
Biodegradable? Environmentally friendly? Altered performance? Better than recycled?
With bio-based materials' checkered past in the past, what remains a truth or a myth? Lux Research maintains that new bio-based materials and chemicals offer performance advantages over petro-based; bio-based products manufacturer MHG chimes in, and well-respected upcycler Tom Szaky provides his insights.
In its recent announcement, “New bio-based materials and chemicals offer performance advantages over petro-based,” Lux Research, Boston, maintains that although bio-based materials earned past skepticism, the next generation offers high value in specialty chemicals, biopolymers, and advanced materials.
An Upcycler’s Input
In his Jan 7, 2015 Sustainable Brands article, “The push for bioplastics and the myth of biodegradability,”TerraCycle CEO Tom Szaky stated, “… many are pointing to plant-derived plastic alternatives as the ultimate solution to our unsustainable dependence on fossil fuel-based plastics,” but warned that their biodegradability is a characteristic of “misplaced optimism and confusion.”
“Petroleum-derived plastics don’t exist in nature, and as such there are no microorganisms naturally predisposed to facilitating decomposition (without the help of additives). Bioplastics are not always biodegradable, either, which can be another source of confusion for consumers.
For example, Coca-Cola’s PlantBottle simply replaces 30 percent of the ethanol in their normal polyethylene terephthalate (PET) plastic bottle with 30 percent plant-derived ethanol. This means the bottle is still considered PET and can be recycled even though it’s made with some plant material, but it still won’t biodegrade,” Szaky stated.
Therein lies the sticky wicket, as well as the basis for optimism, because rapidly advancing technology changes the dynamics. For example, only six months after the article’s publication, CocaCola introduced its reformulated PlantBottle 2.0, made entirely of plants—100 percent plant-based PET.
Szaky acknowledged that polylactic acid (PLA) bioplastic, made from corn biomass, “does indeed biodegrade into water and carbon dioxide … in the right conditions.” High humidity and high temperatures are required, he said.
In the article, Szaky points to one clear advantage of large-scale adoption of bioplastics beyond the biodegradability quandary: “First and foremost is the fact that the required raw materials are renewable; the supply of corn, sugarcane, algae, and other bioplastic feedstocks are only as finite as our cultivation capacity, and the plastics industry could finally emancipate itself from its dependence on fossil fuels.”