Some Biodegradable Plastics Don't Live Up To Their Claims

Posted by timothy on Thursday March 19, 2015 @05:30AM from the ya-don't-say-or-actually-ya-do dept.

ckwu writes From bread bags to beverage bottles, many plastics now contain additives designed to make the materials biodegradable. But a new study shows that plastics made with such additives do not biodegrade in the environment significantly faster than those without the compounds. Researchers prepared films of commercial plastics with three different types of additives supplied by their manufacturers. The researchers then treated the film samples to mimic disposal of such plastics in a compost pile, a landfill, and soil. After about six months of composting, a year and a half of landfill-like conditions, and three years of soil burial, the plastics with additives did not show any more evidence of biodegradation than plastics without them.

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Re:My $0.02 by ShanghaiBill · 2015-03-19 06:01 · Score: 5, Insightful

20 years ago I got a yellow rain jacket ... It is still usable today.
20 years ago, my house was made of biodegradable wood. It is still usable today.
Biodegradable doesn't mean it just magically falls apart after a pre-programmed amount of time. It means it will rot under appropriate conditions. Bury your raincoat in your backyard, water well, and then go back and see if it is still there in 20 years.