What is Composting Packaging?
Many companies are advertising new, compostable packaging for their products. It seems like a promising way to reduce the amount of garbage in landfills, but this new trend leaves consumers and waste management facilities facing several dilemmas. Only certain products have this packaging, and there are very specific rules for how to compost it. Earth-friendly consumers are left wondering if all the hassle is actually worthwhile. The answer is not as clear and easy as they might hope. Does this Spark an idea?
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Compostable Products
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Advertisements for packaging designed to decompose quickly once in the ground are showing up on a range of products. Coca-Cola has created a compostable fountain cup. Frito-Lay's Sun-Chips come in a compostable bag. Dell's new laptop packaging is compostable as well. Newman's Own and Wal-Mart are now advertising food packaging made to break down more quickly. All of these products use new, plant-based materials that will biodegrade more quickly than their old-fashioned counterpart, petroleum-based plastic.
Advantages of Plant-Based Materials
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Coca-Cola, SunChips, Wal-mart and Newman's Own use corn-based plastics called PLA (polylactic acid) to create their packaging. Dell's new laptop uses bamboo plants to keep its computers safe during shipping. All of these new materials will, under certain conditions, biodegrade more quickly. The manufacturing process is cleaner than that of petroleum-based plastics because it produces fewer greenhouse gasses, according to according to the article "Corn Plastics to the Rescue," which appeared in the August 2006 issue of "Smithsonian" magazine.. These bio-plastics also do not contain a harmful chemical called bisphenol A (BPA,) like some regular plastics.
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Specific Composting Conditions
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The "certain conditions" must be met for the new plastics to biodegrade. These products must be added to a hot, active compost pile. SunChips advertises that you can just throw its new bag into a home compost pile and it will biodegrade in 14 weeks. Other PLA advocates state that for packaging to biodegrade in 90 days, it must be in a controlled composting environment that reaches 140 degrees for 10 consecutive days.
The average backyard composting pile does not necessarily meet these requirements. Only a commercial composting facility can truly compost PLA in the amount of time advertised, according to the Biodegradable Products Institute, an organization that tests and certifies biodegradable products. Further, if a "compostable" package is dumped into a regular landfill, there is no guarantee that it will biodegrade any faster than all the other plastic packages surrounding it.
Downfalls of Compostable Packaging
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New biodegradable materials are better for the environment in many ways. Unfortunately, consumers and recycling facilities are not yet equipped to handle PLA packaging, according to . Compostable packaging cannot be mixed with other recyclables plastic as plant-based plastics cannot be recycled in the same way as petroleum-based plastic. PLA packages must be sorted separately and composted intentionally, adding to the costs incurred by municipal recycling programs, according to USA Today online. Until states and cities develop commercial composting, PLA packaging cannot reach is intended potential as an environmentally friendly choice.
Compostable Quandary
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It remains to be seen if PLA is actually better for the environment than petroleum-based plastic. Aside from the recycling issues, some argue using corn-based products is actually detrimental to the environment, since it supports a farming industry that uses chemical fertilizers and pesticides.
Martin Bourque, executive director of the Berkeley Ecology Center, expressed his concern in "Smithsonian" that although new plastics are better in some cases, they will add to waste problems. "My worry is that PLA legitimizes single-serving, over-packaged products," he said.
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- Photo Credit young girl throwing empty ice cup in the garbage bin image by ennavanduinen from Fotolia.com
