Some stories are worth telling, even when they don’t have happy endings.
Such is the tale of compostable plastics. On the surface, they sound like a panacea solution to plastic pollution. We are very much accustomed to the convenience of single-use plastic in our lives, and might be reluctant to let go of them. We may wish for a simple replacement. Alternatives to conventional plastic, however, need to consider the complexities of the systems that they are immersed in. Even truly plant-based plastic must successfully travel through a maze to get from the consumer back into the soil as nutrients.
These days we have witnessed a flooding of the marketplace with packaging labelled as biodegradable, earth-friendly, or simply compostable, without certification, and it becomes challenging to know what we are buying into. The general rule is that, unless it reads certified compostable, the label may be nothing more than greenwashing. All materials eventually degrade into smaller pieces, but these may be smaller pieces of plastic, rather than food for the soil.
While it would be a fairytale to simply replace single-use plastic bottles, to-go containers, grocery store bags, straws and the like with an eco-friendly option, it’s not as easy as waving a wand and restocking supply shelves. Even certified compostable plastics are only meant to break down completely in certified high-heat composting facilities, not backyard composters.
Beyond this, thicker packaging requires many cycles through a certified facility to result in complete breakdown. Typically, a facility tries to get organic materials turned back into soil in about a month, and many compostable plastics can take 100 days or more.
On top of these challenges, there is the understandable confusion in learning how to distinguish between regular and compostable plastic. Often nearly identical in appearance, save tiny writing embossed onto sometimes transparent surfaces, even recycling staff struggle to know what’s what. The result is that recycling bins get contaminated with compostable plastics, which lowers the quality of the final product or packaging that the recycled plastic is transformed into.
Compost facilities also get inundated with real plastic bags, or pseudo-compostable materials that inevitably slow down their operations and result in plastic-filled soil. You might already have experienced how plastic makes its way through the composting process and ends up in your garden soil or compost bought at the nursery. For this reason, many facilities, including the one qathet Regional District and City of Powell River send its composting pilot project materials to, refuse compostable plastic of any kind.
Where then do the solutions lie? Until the systems that certify and manage waste can clearly distinguish between certified compostable and all other materials, they are only an expensive form of pollution in most cases. Well-meaning businesses and individuals invest in more costly packaging in order to meet customer demands and address environmental concerns. While there may come a time when compostable plastics are able to be streamlined, that time has yet to come.
For now, the best approach is twofold, starting with reducing the amount of single-use plastic in our lives by bringing reusable baskets, bags, bottles and utensils with us. We can also inform management at businesses that are attempting to do the right thing by using compostable plastic packaging, of their inherent challenges.
As always, the most effective way to respect the earth is to tread lightly.
Let’s Talk Trash is contracted by qathet Regional District to deliver its waste reduction education program. For more information, email [email protected] or go to LetsTalkTrash.ca.
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