Is It Better For Plastics To Be Recyclable Or Biodegradable?

Take a look around. Would it surprise you to know that a majority of the products you see were made with plastics? Maybe not composed of plastics, but surely made using, designed with, shipped with, and possibly displayed using this amazing material. It's incredible to consider the role plastics play in your everyday life and as a consumer this creates a thought-provoking question. What do you do with all the plastic waste created?

As it is, plastics are here to stay... literally. Since most plastics are made from inorganic compounds such as oil or in cases such as polyethylene, natural gas, they do not decompose easily. As such, when these products are thrown away the microorganisms in landfills do not recognize them as food or decompose them.

Now consider the millions of pounds of discarded plastics delivered to landfills every day. This creates a problem on a global scale and if we stay the course we will surely run out of room to manage all the waste. Already plastics are invading our oceans (Google "Great Pacific Garbage Patch") and over filling our landfills.

So what are our options? Well there are two leading solutions to the problem - increase recycling or make more plastics biodegradable. This article will serve to examine these two options.

Recycling- My plastic envelope has been where before?

Plastics recycling is the process of recovering scrap or waste and reprocessing it into useful, second life material otherwise known as post consumer recycled (PCR) content. For example, a milk carton can be processed into this PCR content and then made into a new product such as a plastic envelope.

When considering recycling there are environmental benefits to keep in mind at every stage of a product's life cycle. Some of these benefits include:

- Protecting and increasing US manufacturing jobs and US competitiveness on a global scale.

- Reducing the excessive use of landfills for non-compostable materials.

- Preventing pollution that is normally caused when manufacturing products from virgin resin.

- Saving energy across the entire product life cycle.

- Decreasing industrial emissions of greenhouse gases.

- Conserving natural resources such as wood, water, oil, and natural gas.

- Helping to sustain the environment for future generations.

Keep in mind, recycling is not exclusive to plastics. Glass, metal, paper, and textiles can all be recycled given the appropriate process.

As beneficial as it is, there are limitations to recycling though. In 1988 the Resin Identification Coding System for plastics was introduced. This system classifies plastics by type and whether they are collected for recycling in specific areas. And although a product has a resin number in the triangle, similar to the recycling symbol, it does not mean it is collected locally for recycling.

And of course, for recycling to be effective, people have to actually recycle. There is a bit of effort involved with recycling unlike the second option for reducing waste.

Biodegradable Plastics - No recycling required.

So what is the alternative to recycling? By adding special additives during production it is claimed that these plastics gain the necessary attributes to be biodegradable, meaning they will break down and decompose naturally in the environment and landfills.

This is possible because those special additives enable microorganisms to metabolize and break down the plastic to produce a material similar to compost. Many, but not all, of these additives are produced from renewable resources such as corn, switch grass, and grain. And although these claims have yet to be substantiated by independent studies there is promise for this new technology.

Currently there are two specifications that are used to identify plastics as biodegradable and compostable which have been developed by the American Society for Testing and Materials:

- ASTM D6400 (Standard Specification for Compostable Plastics) and

- ASTM D6868 (Standard Specification for Biodegradable Plastics Used as Coatings on Paper and Other Compostable Substrates).

These specifications require that any material claiming these properties have met stringent established guidelines. Packaging and plastics with these designations are said to safely disintegrate and biodegrade in a well-managed composting site.

One key point to focus on is the need for a "well-managed" composting site. In order for biodegration to take place, the material must have consistent exposure to both sunlight and air for the biodegrading microorganisms to thrive. These optimal conditions are not common place in most landfills which are packed so tightly that very little, if any, air and sunlight reach past the top layer.

Another thing to keep in mind is that many of these additives change the physical make up of the material meaning that it cannot, or at least should not, be recycled.

So which is better?

There are countless debates between scientist and manufacturers, governments and consumers, about which solution will yield the most promising results. As it is, recycling seems to be the best option for dealing with this escalating situation.

Ultimately the benefits from recycling outweigh those of producing biodegradable plastics. As time passes hopefully there will be more alternatives to waste sitting in landfills for generations to come. And in the end, alternatives that will provide a cleaner environment, better health, and a more sustainable economy.