What you need to know about plant-based plastics
PLA is a bio-plastic made from corn starch and an alternative to traditional plastic but is it even better?
Plastic is everywhere and we use it every day. Plastic has become a ubiquitous part of consumer society. Its durability and flexibility have made it a primary material in many productions systems.
In this blog-post, we want to look at how corn-based plastic stand up against its petroleum-based counterpart? Is it even better for the environment or even you?
The short answer is yes, but… It does not come without problems. The bio-plastic made from corn is called PLA (Polylactic acid) and it’s made from fermented and processed corn starch. PLA has quickly become an important player when it comes to finding a sustainable alternative to petroleum-based plastics and for good reasons.
More than eighteen trillion pounds of plastic have been produced to date, and eighteen billion pounds of plastic flows into the ocean every year. It ensnares the marine animals we cherish and the fish we put on our plates, it appears in the table salt we use, and it’s even found in our own bodies. — National geographic
As an alternative bio-plastic made from corn starch, PLA reduces the use of fossil fuel resources, it has a smaller carbon footprint and faster decomposition. PLA is also less toxic than traditional plastic and does not contain bisphenol A (BPA). BPA is a hormone disrupter that is often found in traditional plastics (That’s gross!).
Okay, then as we all might know traditional plastic is not the best thing ever but how about the PLA what are the pros and cons of using it as an alternative???
The Cons:
Let's start with the bad things of using PLA — First of all, although PLA does biodegrade, it does so very slowly. PLA will break down into carbon dioxide and water within three months in a “controlled composting environment” that is, an industrial composting facility heated to around 60°C and fed a steady diet of digestive microbes. But it will take far longer in a compost bin or a landfill. This is due to the fact that these are packed so tightly that no light and too little oxygen are available to assist in the process. Analysts estimate that a PLA bottle could take anywhere from 100 to 1,000 years to decompose in a landfill.
The land required for bioplastics competes with food production because the crops that produce bioplastics can also be used to feed people. The Plastic Pollution Coalition projects that to meet the growing global demand for bioplastics, more than 3.4 million acres of land — an area larger than Belgium, the Netherlands and Denmark combined — will be needed to grow the crops by 2019. — phys.org
Bio-plastics are… you guess it… made from bio-material and this means that it needs to be sorted as such. It is important to keep it separate from the regular plastic waste and it should be treated at a “composting facility”, not a recycling facility. This is just not currently being done and the bio-plastic ends up getting burned instead. But this can also be seen as a pro for using PLA because in Denmark we use bio-waste to make biogas which furthermore can be used to substitute even more oil-based products… Win-win!
Another factor when considering bio-plastic is the price! It is expensive… PLA costs up to 20–50% more than traditional plastic… (the prices are coming down because of research though)
The Pros:
PLA is made from a renewable material source (and not from oil). And even though it takes times to compose it is compostable and as mentioned earlier PLA will degrade into its natural components only carbon dioxide and water, while potrolium-based plastic will degrade into the infamous and very polluting micro-plastic. And not only that but PLA also has the potential to create bio-gas in the process!
PLA might not be a perfect solution for the plastic problem but it’s supporting a change in the plastic industry creating an alternative to petroleum-based plastic. Cutting down on the CO2 by being technically CO2-neutral in that it comes from renewable, carbon-absorbing plants, so yet another way to reduce our emissions (again… WIN/WIN!!).
So as long as we live in a society that embraces disposable plastic containers, we need to be working toward finding solutions that are less harmful to the environment than traditional plastics. To that end, we think that products made from PLA are a positive step toward a world less dependent on oil and more focused on renewable solutions.
And that’s why at GRIM, we are looking into replacing our traditional plastic with PLA plastic products! And remember to stay GRIM!
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