The Buzz About Biodegradable Products
It seems like every month there's a new eco-friendly fad people are eager to follow. One week everybody resolves to buy reusable bags and to never use plastic bags from the supermarket, the next week they're switching to macrobiotic diets and preach about the importance of eating locally grown food.
Recently there's been some buzz around biodegradable products, biodegradable plastics and biodegradable trays and food containers are the current eco-friendly must have. Scientists are finding ways to make plastics and other manmade materials biodegradable and people couldn't be more surprised by the results.
The excitement over biodegradable products has to lead to some confusion over what qualifies as product as biodegradable, and what being "biodegradable" actually means. According to Merriam Webster, in order for an object to be biodegradable it needs to be capable of being broken down into innocuous products by the action of living things like microorganisms. In simpler terms a biodegradable product is a product that can be broken down naturally with bacteria and fungi.
There are many benefits that the widespread use of biodegradable products, especially plastics, can bring. The main benefit of biodegradable plastics is the short time it takes for the material to break down. Biodegradable plastic can be back into the Earth in its basic elemental forms in around 180 days (under the right conditions) instead of the millennia it can take for regular plastic to break down in landfills. Since biodegradable plastics are made from organic materials (biomass) instead oil they're renewable products. The biomass materials also make biodegradable plastics non-toxic. Traditional plastics release by-products and chemicals during their breakdown process, and some can be surprisingly hazardous to human health. Biodegradable plastic harmlessly breaks down without releasing toxic or hazardous materials, just the basic biomass elements.
Common Confusion: Biodegradable and Compostable
Did you know that a biodegradable tray may not be the same as a compostable tray? Many people confuse the terms "biodegradable" and "compostable" or use them interchangeably because they believe they are the same thing, but that assumption couldn't be further from the truth. If a product is biodegradable that means that the product material can break down naturally into organic compounds. This process can happen as a result of an exposure to heat, moisture, and microorganisms. After being broken down naturally a biodegradable product can leave behind traces of other inorganic materials, and this key difference is what separates biodegradable materials from compostable materials. Compostable materials must break down into organic matter and leave no toxic by-products or residue, any toxic materials, heavy metals, and other harmful inorganic materials would make the material poor for composting. A product can be biodegradable and compostable, but not all biodegradable products can be compostable.
