Bio-Based Plastic Won’t Solve the Plastic Problem
Adele Peters | March 28, 2023 | Fast Company
If you order takeout in Los Angeles and your meal comes with a compostable fork made from PLA—a common bio-based plastic—you’re not supposed to toss the utensil in your curbside compost bin. The city doesn’t want any products or packaging labeled “biodegradable” or “compostable,” saying that the materials don’t actually break down quickly enough even at commercial composting facilities. The fork also can’t go in a recycling bin, since it can contaminate other materials. And if it ends up in a landfill or the ocean, it may last as long as if it had been made from regular plastic.
It’s one example of the challenges that face a new Biden administration goal to help the U.S. replace 90% of plastic with materials made from bio-based feedstocks.
“Bioplastic isn’t a silver bullet,” says Steve Hynd, policy and media manager for City to Sea, a UK nonprofit focused on plastic pollution. The first and most obvious step, he says, is using less plastic to begin with. Global plastic production doubled between 2000 to 2019. Since then, in the U.S. alone, more than 40 new petrochemical plants to make plastic have started construction or the permitting process.
The surge in plastic—around half of which is designed for a single use—isn’t just a waste problem, but a climate problem. (The new government goal is part of a broader plan to hit net-zero emissions by the middle of the century.) Most plastic is made from ethane, a byproduct of natural gas; 35 ethane “cracker” facilities in the U.S. release around 70 million tons of greenhouse gas emissions a year, according to a 2021 report from Beyond Plastics. Other chemical feedstocks and additives in plastic add even more emissions to the final product. The report calculated that the plastic industry in the U.S. could outpace pollution from the country’s coal power plants by the end of this decade.
Depending on how it’s made, bio-based plastic could help significantly shrink that footprint. One new bottled water brand, for example, uses compostable bioplastic made with food waste (the material, called PHA, also has a lower footprint than other bio-based feedstocks like sugarcane or corn, and is designed to break down more easily than some other compostables). But it still makes more sense to focus on refillable and reusable packaging, argues Melissa Valliant, communications director for Beyond Plastics. “We’ve used [refillables and reusables] in the past,” she says. “We’ve seen them in other countries being used by businesses and companies very successfully. And those have a much smaller climate impact than anything that’s disposable, because it’s being reused over and over again.”
While increasing reuse is important, bio-based alternatives still make sense for some applications, says Pierre Paslier, cofounder of the startup Notpla, which has developed a seaweed-based film that can replace the plastic film used in sachets that hold cosmetics or food, as well as other packaging. Under European definitions, the new material isn’t considered plastic, because it hasn’t been chemically modified; instead, a natural polymer is extracted from the seaweed. It can break down in compost more quickly than a fruit peel, Paslier says.
“Compostable packaging should be as compostable as food waste,” he says. “It shouldn’t require more time and more energy and more special considerations.”
