With plastic waste (at right) clogging landfills and choking waterways, degradable bioplastics are raising hopes for a solution. Yet they may not be quite so quick a fix, and even the word ‘bioplastic” isn’t always what it seems.
Photo: Idiolector
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Production of just one million tonnes of bioplastic would reduce greenhouse gas emissions by FOUR millions tonnes a year, this is why bioplastics are booming, and it’s why we should all change to bioplastics wherever it is practical to do so. Reducing greenhouse gas emissions will help reverse the climate change that is responsible for many crop failures, thus increasing the amount of food available in the world.
Forget ‘degradable’ and ‘oxo-degradable’ plastics, they are made from ordinary high CO2 generating plastic, the fact they ‘might’ biodegrade is irrelevant as they have already done their damage by then, by increasing CO2 levels by a factor of at least double their own weight.
http://www.european-bioplastics.org/index.php?id=151
Bioplastics use as little as 25% of the energy used in making plastic.
Many bioplastics are compostable at home, the best one’s for this are potato starch and blends of potato and corn starch, these are available from Stanelco in the UK, http://www.stanelcoplc.com
Waste and carrier bags made in the UK from this Bioplastic are available from Comp-Bio Products at http://www.comp-bio.co.uk or made in Canada by Indaco Manufacturing at http://www.indaco.ca or in several EU countries by Sphere S.A at http://www.sphere.eu or Australia/N.Z via BioPak at http://www.biopak.com.au or in the Middle East via Isracaps at http://www.isracaps.com
Read the FAQ on biopastics, these are the facts not the hype, rumour, or old wives tales about Bioplastic
http://www.european-bioplastics.org/index.php?id=191