Demystifying Compostable and Biodegradable Plastics

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Written By Eve Fox

JULY 2024 | BEYOND PLASTICS

Trying to reduce your own use of plastics or that of your business can be daunting with so many products marketed as being safer and more sustainable than regular plastic. Many manufacturers claim their bioplastics products break apart faster in the environment, are made from safer materials, and have smaller climate change impacts. With no federal standards defining or regulating bioplastics, companies have free rein to label whatever they want as “biodegradable” and “compostable.” As you can imagine, this lack of regulation has led to misleading marketing meant to falsely convince the public that certain products are environmentally friendly.

So, are any bioplastic products good alternatives to regular plastic? And, if so, how can you tell? Beyond Plastics is filling that knowledge gap for consumers and businesses that are genuinely trying to make environmentally responsible decisions. 

This report provides an overview of bioplastic materials currently on the market, the voluntary standards that govern their design, and scientific research findings to date on their safety to help individuals make evaluations of their options. It also covers the waste management issues associated with bioplastics and provides a checklist to guide decision making. 

We’ve supplemented the report with an easy, trifold guide that can be printed out and distributed to local businesses, as well as a shareable educational video (below) that walks you through bioplastics terminology, myths, and decision-making guidance. You can also find “Hold the Plastic, Please: A Restaurant’s Guide to Reducing Plastic” — a Beyond Plastics publication from 2022 — for more information on the considerations and benefits of shifting from single-use to reusable food ware and packaging. The restaurant guide offers detailed, practical, and inspiring advice for how to reduce the use of plastic in restaurant operations and how to effectively convey those changes to customers, reporters, and the general public.

GET THE REPORT & OTHER KEY DOCUMENTS

IMPORTANT: If you find the report and checklist useful, we hope that you’ll share it widely. Click here for a sharing toolkit that makes it easy to spread the word about the report and guide via email and social media.📧📲

WATCH & SHARE THE SHORT VIDEO

Beyond Plastics teamed up with some of our favorite creative geniuses over at The Story of Stuff Project to create a short video that highlights some of the questions and confusions around bioplastics and helps you figure out how to tackle assessing various marketing claims.

PRINT OUT THE TRIFOLD BROCHURE WITH CHECKLIST

Please note that this guide is designed as a trifold and you should fold it along the dotted lines. Click here to download the trifold to keep it handy and/or to leave a copy with any businesses, restaurants, or schools you may visit in your town, neighborhood, or city. If you do not have access to a color printer, you can also click here to download the version in black and white.

The trifold brochure is also available in Spanish. Haga clic aquí para descargar en Español en color o aquí en blanco y negro.

TAKE ACTION

Due to the fact that no federal standards currently define or regulate bioplastic, biodegradable, or compostable products, there’s a great deal of confusion about what the various products available on the market are made from as well as how they impact our health and environment. But we can fix that!

Please join us in urging Lina M. Khan, Chair of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to update and expand the agency’s “Green Guides” by the end of 2024 to strengthen and clarify the terminology related to compostability and to add a new section defining requirements for the various terms used to market bioplastics to force companies to describe their products accurately to minimize confusion and aid consumers and businesses in evaluating the best alternatives to single-use plastics. Sign the petition now. >>

SHARE THE REPORT AND CHECKLIST

We’ve put together a simple sharing toolkit to make it easy to spread the word about the report and checklist. The toolkit includes graphics, sample text for sharing it on social media, a sample outreach email, and an easy to print out black and white two-page handout that includes the checklist that you can leave with restaurants in your area.

GET THE TOOLKIT >>

NEWS RELEASE

New Report Reveals Challenges of ‘Biodegradable’ and ‘Compostable’ Plastic, Provides Guide to Choosing Best Products

Corresponding Checklist Offers Consumers and Businesses Easy Way to Determine if Bioplastics Products Are Worthy Plastic Alternatives

For Immediate Release: July 11, 2024

Contact: Melissa Valliant, Beyond Plastics — melissavalliant@bennington.edu, (410) 829-0726

Beyond Plastics released a report evaluating bioplastic materials currently on the market, the voluntary standards that govern their design, and scientific research findings to date on their safety to help individuals assess their options. Called “Demystifying Compostable and Biodegradable Plastic,” it also covers the waste management issues associated with bioplastics and provides a checklist to guide decision making.

Beyond Plastics has supplemented the report with a brochure (Spanish version here) that can be distributed to local businesses, as well as a shareable educational video that walks viewers through bioplastic terminology, myths, and decision-making guidance. Restaurant owners can also benefit from “A Restaurant’s Guide to Reducing Plastic” — a Beyond Plastics publication from 2022 — for more information, especially on the benefits of shifting to reusable packaging.

Beyond Plastics also called on Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan to finalize changes to the FTC Green Guides, which address the accuracy of environmental claims made by companies. The Green Guides have not been updated since 2012. The FTC opened a public comment period earlier this year, but there is no indication of when it will move to finalize an updated version.

The packaging industry markets bioplastic products as a solution to plastic pollution, claiming they degrade faster in the environment, are made from safer materials, and have smaller climate change impacts than regular plastics, which are created from fossil fuels. These claims tend to attract consumers and businesses looking for environmentally friendly alternatives to fossil fuel-based plastic; however, as our report shows, just because a product is “biobased,” “compostable,” or marketed as a “bioplastic” does not necessarily make it better.

“Many consumers and businesses are genuinely trying to do the right thing when they replace traditional plastic products — like utensils, takeout containers, and straws — with bioplastics that claim to be ‘biodegradable’ and ‘compostable,’ but unfortunately they’re often replacing one harmful material with another,” said Judith Enck, president of Beyond Plastics and former EPA regional administrator. “The lack of regulations around bioplastics allows companies to present their products as more environmentally friendly than traditional plastic without meeting any standards for safety, toxicity, climate change impacts, or how long it takes for them to degrade. This report combats the often misleading promotion of bioplastics by providing a close  look at the benefits and harms of products on the market today. Ultimately, individuals should always try to eliminate the need for plastic altogether or replace it with a reusable option; but when a bioplastic product is the only material that fits the bill, this report should ensure individuals are making choices that better the planet and human health.”

Key findings include:

  • Bioplastics are typically made using the same processes as traditional plastics, which means they may also contain harmful chemical additives.

    • Some bioplastics may be even more toxic than traditional plastics because their product formulations contain new, unidentified chemicals.

  • No federal standards define or regulate bioplastic, biodegradable, or compostable products. This leads to misleading advertising and waste management challenges. 

  • Compostable plastics can only break apart in a commercial composting facility, and few communities in the U.S. have access to commercial composting facilities.

  • Certification programs in the United States, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand are run by trade associations or private organizations that represent bioplastics manufacturers, posing potential conflicts of interest. 

    • For example, the U.S.’s main certifier of compostable packaging, the Biodegradable Products Institute (BPI), has some of the most powerful petrochemical companies on its board, including BASF, Eastman Chemical Company, TotalEnergies Corbion, and Danimer Scientific. 

  • Instead of swapping out one type of plastic for another, the best option is to turn off the spigot for single-use plastics, which make up nearly half of all plastics produced. The next best solutions are swapping plastic for a reusable or refillable system, or replacing plastic with a recycled paper or recycled cardboard product.

    • When plastics are necessary and cannot be eliminated, biobased polymers may be preferable because of the devastating environmental, human health, and environmental justice impacts associated with fossil fuel-derived plastics. But that needs to be evaluated on a case-by-case basis — any bioplastic product should be carefully vetted.

  • To expand reuse opportunities across the country, legislators should require reuse and fund it through legislation like packaging reduction bills, often referred to as extended producer responsibility, or EPR. 

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QUESTIONS OR IDEAS?

We welcome your feedback, questions, and ideas. You can email us at beyondplastics@bennington.edu.

Eve Fox
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