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Look around you. It’s likely you’re wearing plastic, touching plastic, and reading this on a device made with plastics.
When it comes to environmental sustainability, it’s no secret plastics are a big issue. From the well known Pacific Garbage Patch to overfilled landfills, plastics are an issue that aren’t going away any time soon.
Bioplastics have been around for over 20 years, and they’re just now picking up steam. The key difference between bioplastics and “traditional plastics” is petroleum.
What’s covered in this article?
- Petroleum plastics and risks to our health and environment.
- What are bioplastics?
- How do they compare to other materials?
- Biodegradable vs Compostable.
- What bioplastics are there? How do they compare?
- The Nectr Bioplastic production, FDA certification, safety, and composting.
Petroleum Plastics
Traditional plastics like PET, PE, HDPE, and ABS are made from a petroleum source. What’s not great about petroleum? First, the process of mining, refining, and creating petroleum products is a great expense to the environment. Next, petroleum releases a large amount of greenhouse gases contributing to climate change. Finally, petroleum is toxic to the environment, plants, animals, and humans.
It takes hundreds or thousands of years for petroleum based products to biodegrade. As they break down into smaller pieces called “microplastics” they infiltrate our water, food, and air. As of 2020 studies, in the U.S. people ingest approximately 2 credit cards worth of microplastics every month. To top it off, petroleum microplastics are found inside the organs and cells of nearly every human on Earth, including placenta’s of pregnant women.
We don’t yet know the far-reaching effects of the buildup of plastics in our environment. We do know they are a great detriment to the health and well-being of our entire ecosystem.
Why do we use petroleum plastics? The oil industry and government subsidies have made them cheap. There are many products today that wouldn’t exist without the ease of manufacturing with plastics or their inert properties.
What about bioplastics?
Not to be confused with “biodegradable plastics” – bioplastics are made from biological sources. Bioplastics are mostly plant-based materials with a chemical structure similar to traditional plastics.
The chemical formulation of bioplastics gives them the unique qualities that make traditional plastics a great platform for many products including: low melting point, ease of molding, durability, chemical resistance, and electrical resistance.
Although bioplastics come from plant-based sources, not all bioplastics are environmentally safe or sustainable.
Biodegradability vs Compostability
Biodegradable is a term thrown around loosely. Technically speaking, everything is “biodegradable” because it will break down into it’s base elements eventually. There is no timeline for products to be considered biodegradable. Even traditional plastics will break down over many decades or thousands of years.
Compostability is a standard with federally and internationally regulated guidelines. For products to be “compostable” they must meet certain standards of rapid biodegradability. In the U.S. the standard limit of compostability is 6 months. This means compostable products must fully break down in a home or industrial composting environment within 6 months to be considered. Some compostable bioplastics break down in as little as 15 days.
It’s important to know landfills are not composting environments. Most compostable products including fruits and vegetables won’t biodegrade easily in a landfill. This happens because the environment is toxic to the good bacteria and microbes that eat the plant matter or bioplastic which break it down rapidly.
Popular Bioplastics
PLA & PLA II
PolyLactic Acid (PLA) is one of the oldest and most widely used bioplastics today. The molecule is formed by processing cellulose from plants like wheat, corn, bamboo, and hemp. PLA is rigid and extremely durable like ABS or HDPE plastics.
While it has many uses in replacing petroleum plastics, PLA is not environmentally friendly. No composting or industrial composting facility will accept PLA as it is not compostable. In addition to not being compostable, as PLA biodegrades it makes the environment more acidic and creates microplastics. If PLA were introduced into composting environments, it destabilizes the PH of the compost and kills the important microbiome.
Yes, it’s better than petroleum because of the plant-based material, but it doesn’t solve the problem of microplastics or buildup of plastic waste.
PHA & PHB
Polyhydroxyalkanoate known as (PHA) and its sister molecule Polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB) are polyester molecules created by microbes. The polymer is formed by carbon assimilation by bacteria and makes a great plastic.
PHA & PHB aren’t as durable as other plastics. They are water soluble and break down readily with acidic or basic chemicals. The huge benefit of PHA & PHB’s are their rapid compostability. For products with limited shelf-life and use like single-use cutlery, packaging films, and containers these polymers perform well and can be easily composted.
Not only are these polyesters highly compostable in industrial composting facilities, but they also easily biodegrade in nature. Some PHA’s &PHB’s biodegrade easily in waterways, the ocean, and on the side of the road.
Because of their plant-based inputs and high-compostability, PHA & PHB are becoming popular. However, there are many limitations and challenges with these bioplastics like difficulty in scaling manufacturing processes, high costs compared to other bioplastics, and lack of durability. Currently, we can’t use PHA & PHB for any products with high water content or humidity because the plastic will start to break down on the shelf.
Plant-based Polyester
There are a wide variety of plant-based compounds with similar chemical makeup to traditional polyesters. The main input for these products is plant cellulose from highly fibrous plants like wheat, corn, and hemp.
Plant-based Polyesters hold a strong position for the future of bioplastics. With blends of materials, we can replace almost any traditional plastic from the rigid, durable ABS to highly flexible elastomers (like a silicone). Most plant-based Polyesters on the market are highly durable, water resistant, chemical resistant, and easy to plug into traditional product manufacturing like injection molding. Although highly durable, these polyesters break down readily in composting environments.
Because of their renewable, plant-based inputs and ease of manufacturing, plant-based polyesters are being rapidly adopted. Compared to traditional plastics, the costs associated are fairly low and much more attainable than PHA & PHB’s.
Nectr Bottle™ Bioplastic
The Nectr Bottle uses a proprietary blend of Plant-based Polyester from a corn base and hemp that is highly durable, FDA Food Safe Certified, ASTM 6400 Compostability Certified, water resistant, and chemical resistant. In short, our bioplastic is a similar molecule to the polyester traditionally made from petroleum in products like a Nalgene or Camelbak bottle, but made from plants with a unique chemical formula that enables compostability with no toxic chemicals.
Our proprietary material has received the following FDA certification:
“Meets the requirements of the U.S. Code of Federal Regulations, Title 21 (Food and Drugs), Part 21 CFR 177.1520(c) and GRAS (Generally Regarded As Safe).”
This means that our hemp fiber filled plant-based polyester has been rigorously tested by the FDA and meets all requirements for a Food Safe material.
Composting The Nectr Bottle™
Unfortunately, there are many limitations to current composting and industrial composting facilities. Because bioplastics aren’t well-regulated or understood, it’s difficult to find a composting facility in the U.S. that will readily take any compostable bioplastic products.
Even highly compostable bioplastics when sent to a landfill may take many years to biodegrade because of how composting facilities are set up. The benefits outweigh the downsides. With bioplastics we can be sure there are no toxic chemicals introduced into the environment, significantly lower carbon emissions, reduce dependence on toxic petroleum manufacturing, reducing microplastics, and preserving the ecosystem for future generations.
Once your Nectr Bottle™ has finished its useful life with you (3-10 years), Nectr™ will take back your bottle and recycle it into new products or compost it for you.
