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Biodegradable or Compostable - What's the Difference?
With so many “green” terms and labels on the market it’s hard for the general consumer to keep up with what they all mean. Even the most “eco-friendly” consumers are confused about the different terms. We’ve done the research to break down the eco-lingo to be clear on what materials will “break down” back into nature and what materials simply “break apart” into smaller plastics. Let’s start with the biggest greenwashing term of all them all — degradable. Degradable Degradable is a word often found on the outside of a plastic bag stating how earth friendly it is. It’s easy for the regular “non-eco” consumer to associate degradable with biodegradable and that’s exactly why the term is used — word association or quite simply put it's greenwashing. There is absolutely nothing eco-friendly about degradable plastics, they’re not biodegradable nor are they compostable. They will however eventually degrade (break apart), just like other plastics do, however they're designed to break apart faster than regular plastic items. Degradable items will break apart into smaller pieces of plastic. Take away: Pass on these single use plastic items. Biodegradable Biodegradable is a term that's often associated with nature. An apple core for example when discarded into the natural environment will biodegrade. We’re taught in science lessons at school that this is what biodegradability looks like, and therefore our mindset becomes “if this biodegradable [plastic item] gets thrown on the ground then it will eventually fade back into nature and be gone forever—just like an apple.” While partly true — that is the way biodegradability works — however biodegradable as a term has no timeframe. The time it takes to decompose depends on a range of factors, including location and climate. An oak tree leaf for example is 100% natural and 100% biodegradable, however the estimated time it takes for an oak leaf to fully biodegrade is up to four years. An apple can take around 1-2 months, banana skins 3-4 weeks and an orange peel can take up to 2 years to fully biodegrade. A biodegradable straw on the other hand is manufactured product and may have to be placed into an industrial composting facility in order to fully biodegrade. How long it will take to break down in nature is unknown, but it won’t be as quick as an apple core and it certainly won’t biodegrade when added to landfill. Take away: Biodegradable has no timeframe. Avoid biodegradable plastics and seek out compostable plastics instead. Compostable vs. Biodegradable Biodegradable and compostable are terms that are often confused. Although an item may be considered "biodegradable" this does not mean it can be composted. Biodegradable plastics may, over time, break down with the aid of micro-organisms, however that doesn't mean these items can be composted. When stating a product is certified compostable it also needs to acknowledge if that item is required to be sent to an industrial compost or if the item can be composted in a home composting system. When an item is considered biodegradable or compostable, it relies on temperature, humidity, soil, worms or mico-organisms and moisture to aid in the decomposition. The speed at which it breaks down will be determined on those factors. Certified Compostable - Industrial Certified compostable plastics are either home certified or industrial certified. The difference is mostly related to heat. An industrial facility will reach temperatures of 55 degrees plus – and it will take bioplastics several weeks to break down at those temperatures. Home composting environments don't reach the those temperatures. We decided to run a non-scientific test to see if a plastic straw that was certified for industrial composts would actually break down in a home compost. We thought perhaps that as our home compost was located in a tropical environment, that compost might get hot enough to break down a plastic straw. It did not break down in our home compost. In fact after checking it several times for over a year we found the straw perfectly intact, just the way it was when we initially added it to the compost pile. After a year of waiting, we gave up and the plastic straw was headed for landfill. We also added one of the same straws to our "bio-test patch" it's also still perfectly intact. What can we take away from this home based experiment? Plastics certified for industrial composts may biodegrade over time however depending on the thickness of the plastic it's unlikely they will breakdown in a home composting system. These plastics need to be sent to an industrial facility to be returned back to nature. It should be noted that in Australia very few industrial composting facilities exist. Further to that most industrial composting facilities do not want compostable plastics in their facilities — they take far longer to break down then regular organic matter does, or they simply don't have the technology required to break down the bioplastic material. Finally, if compostable plastics are added to the regular plastic recycling system they will contaminate the recycling stream. Take away: Plastics that are certified for industrial composting are not as green as we are lead to believe. They are unlikely to make it to an industrial composting facility to be composted, and they will not break down when they end up in a landfill. Take a pass on single use plastics certified for industrial composts. Aust. Industrial Compost Euro Industrial Compost Aust. Home Compost Euro Home Compost Certified Compostable - Home Our final certification for bioplastics is the home compostable certification. The two logos that you want to look out for are the OK Home Compost logo and the Seedling Logo. Belgian certifier TÜV Austria Belgium developed the OK Compost Home Certification scheme this is the European Standard for a Home Composting Certification. The Seedling Logo was launched by the Australian Bioplastics Association and is used throughout Australia and New Zealand. The Seedling logo is a registered trademark of TÜV Austria and requires slightly higher standards than the OK Home Compost Logo. The most notable of the differences is that the certification tests for toxicity to worms. The Home Compostable Verification and the Seedling logo clearly identifies and differentiates packaging materials as certified biodegradable and compostable. This endorsement only applies to the packaging and not to the contents of the packaging. Be sure to check that your home compostable plastic bag, does in fact have a home compostable logo printed on the bag itself. Take away: When purchasing compostable plastics be sure to check the label. Home compostable is the logo that can be placed into your home compost.
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Bamboo Toothbrush: Biodegradability Test
In Australia alone it's estimated that over 30 million plastic toothbrushes are used annually. While that may seem like a needle in a haystack when it comes to annual household waste, those 30 million toothbrushes add up to 1,000 tonnes of plastic waste ending up in Australian landfills each year. Now imagine over six billion people discarding their plastic toothbrush every few months. The visual becomes very clear—it's a lot of unnecessary plastic waste. The very simple solution? Stop purchasing plastic toothbrushes. It really is that simple. Bamboo and other biodegradable toothbrushes are becoming more common in the mainstream market today. But don't be fooled by the greenwash. While it's great to see the big box stores providing more eco-friendly alternatives, selling a plastic free product that's packaged in plastic is not taking the plastic pollution situation seriously enough. Take a pass on these brands and opt for a toothbrush that's plastic packaging free. Before we delve into into how eco-friendly or biodegradable a bamboo toothbrush is, it's very important to note that 99% of bamboo or otherwise biodegradable toothbrushes on the market today still contain a small amount of plastic. While the handle may be biodegradable, the bristles are typically made from a nylon material. Although it may be a little disheartening to learn most bamboo toothbrushes are not 100% plastic free, it's definitely better than purchasing a toothbrush that's made from 100% plastic brush, knowing that the brush will will end up in the landfill. Now that we've got the issue of the plastic bristles out of the way. Let's take a look at how eco-friendly the rest of the brush is. Bamboo is a sustainable material. It requires no fertilisers, is not only easy to grow but is also fast growing. Added to that, a bamboo toothbrush handle will biodegrade naturally if simply tossed into a patch of dirt or added to your compost. When your bamboo toothbrush starts to loose it's bristles it's time for a new brush. Prior to discarding your old bamboo toothbrush, it's important to remove the bristles first. If the brush has already started loosing its bristles removing the rest of the bristles from the bamboo handle won't be too difficult. If the bristles are not easy to remove with your fingers, you can pull them out with a pair of pliers. Alternatively, leave the bristles intact and instead use the brush as a cleaning brush — just as you would a plastic toothbrush. Over time the bamboo will eventually start to break down and release the plastic bristles. Once your bristles have been removed from the brush there are many options for discarding the bamboo handle. The handle of your brush is perfect to use as a herb or vegetable marker. It's a great looking marker that will naturally break down in your garden. Don't have a vegetable patch? The bamboo handle can be pushed into the ground in any part of your garden. If the handle is hidden from view no-one will be the wiser that you're discarding your old toothbrushes in your yard, allowing them to fade back into nature. And finally, if you're composting your waste, the bamboo toothbrush can be thrown in with your compost. Throwing it into general waste should be your very last option. If you've been following EORTH's completely unscientific compostability tests you would be aware of the results of our Compostable Straw test, which did not go very well, currently not receiving any marks on the home compostability test. Next up in EORTH's biodegradability test lab is the Bamboo Toothbrush. How quickly does bamboo toothbrush biodegrade? Over the past few years we've added a few bamboo handles to our bio-test patch, used them as garden markers and added them to our compost bin. And we can happily report that these bamboo toothbrushes do indeed break down naturally, no matter where they are placed. Another 10/10 result! As you can see from the images the above, the bamboo toothbrush was placed into the ground with the (animal hair) bristles exposed. The bamboo brush handle that was in direct contact with the ground has broken down quicker than when left in the open air. Now over six months later the only part of the toothbrush remaining is the head, which was the part sticking out of the ground. Please note: The bristles were left in the bamboo toothbrush illustration above as they were made from animal hair. Although there are many biodegradable brushes available on the market today, EORTH recommends selecting a bush with a bamboo handle. These brushes will break down naturally, simply by placing them into the ground. There are other options for toothbrushes such as bioplastic brushes made from cornstarch, however these will not break down in your compost, nor will the breakdown in landfill, so essentially they are no different then a regular toothbrush made with petroleum based plastic. We have been testing a bioplastic toothbrush for both compostability (did not compost after three months), as well we have placed it into our biotest patch, it's been sitting in the patch for over a year now - just hanging out with it's friend the "compostable straw" neither are giving back to nature anytime soon. Are you ready to make the switch to a biodegradable bamboo toothbrush?
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How long do compostable straws take to break down?
We put compostable straws to the test. Several years ago there wasn’t a lot of noise about how devastating plastic straws were for the environment. This all changed when a video of a turtle with a plastic straw stuck up its nostril made its rounds on social media. People started paying attention, and those who had been campaigning about straws for years prior, finally had thousands of vocal allies. Straws are a staple behind almost every bar and restaurant you visit, with bartenders happily placing straws in every drink that crosses their bar. It’s an automatic motion, drink=straw. While it’s been great to see plastic straws being replaced with more environmentally friendly options, there are still a few misconceptions about what constitutes an environmentally friendly straw. When visiting my local beachside cafe* I noticed they’d switched their plastic straws to a new “compostable” straw. While this was well intentioned—these compostable straws really were not much different then their plastic counterparts. * Like many food outlets in the Cairns region this beachside bar and restaurant has now switched to paper straws. When people say their compostable plastic item is “environmentally friendly, because it’s compostable,” my reply is always: “that’s great, but are you going to compost it?” Compostable straws, and other compostable plastics won’t compost themselves, and the majority of them require industrial composting in order to break down. Furthermore, most industrial facilities don't accept compostable plastics as they take too long to break down. Therefore, I knew these compostable straws were headed to the same place as regular plastic straws — off to landfill. Although the outside of the box of compostable straws at the above mentioned bar clearly stated “industrial composting,” we decided to see how it would fair in a backyard compost. We do live in Far North Queensland after all, and it’s been pretty darn hot for the last few months, so surely our compost heap gets hot enough to break down a compostable straw! The compostable straw experiment [Experiment findings starting June 16, 2018] 16 June, 2018 25 Aug, 2018 4 Jan, 2018 Result: This straw is not returning back to nature anytime soon. A few months after placing the compostable straw in our home compost pile, we were digging around, preparing to add a fresh load of compostable waste to the area. We then found the compostable straw straw that had been taken from the restaurant and placed into the compost pile a few months prior. As you can see (June 16, 2018) the straw is perfectly intact. So much so that you could still drink from it, (we didn’t). The straw was then placed back in the pile. We checked back in a few months to see if it had started to break down. After digging up the compost there it was again, perfectly intact. We decided to give up on the compost experiment. After several months, of composting the straw had not changed its structure one bit. We noted that an "industrial compost" straw does not easily break down in a home compost — not even in the hot tropics. 25 August, 2018, we placed the compostable straw in our “bio test patch,” to watch it break down in a natural environment. The idea of the bio test patch is to replicate someone “accidentally” throwing it on the ground (or littering). Where we would monitor it and watch its progress (test results below). What can we learn from these experiments? Many people's (mis)understanding of compostable or biodegradable plastics is that they won't cause any environmental harm should they "accidentally" end up in nature or in landfill, as they will simply break down eventually. The fact is these items will exist far longer in the environment than most people would assume. Not all straws are equal. If you’re a restauranteur or bar owner, don’t get “sucked in” by the greenwash. Compostable straws won’t compost unless you place them in a compost, and in a lot of cases they will need to be industrially composted. The best option is to choose a reusable straw or no straw at all! If a straw is required for medical purposes, then make the best choice that is right for your situation. If you simply prefer to sip on a straw rather than use your lips, then choose a paper straw or a reusable straw. That way you can happily sip away knowing that your straw isn't going to end up lodged in the nostril of a turtle. [update January 6, 2020] 16 Jan, 2020 18 Feb, 2020 8 June, 220 We waited and watched. Initially the straw started to split apart. Many months later we noticed the straw had started to break down into strips. While it's great to see that the straw is eventually starting to break down, it's now been two years since the experiment began, and it still hasn't fully broken down. [update April 18, 2021] Almost three years have passed since we first started testing and we are happy to see . . . the straw is almost a straw no more! Three years is a better result than expected! However, it should be noted that this straw was left in an area that is fully exposed to the Far North Queensland elements. The bio-test patch is in full sunlight for most of the day and is fully exposed to (heavy tropical) rain. Both of these factors can aid in a faster biodegradability process than other environments. It also (fortunately) did not make its way to a drain that leads to the ocean or a nearby creek. Had the straw been placed in seawater for a period of three years I expect we would have seen different results — likely being no degradation at all. The straw is not completely broken down yet, we'll be back with an update once it truly is a "straw no more".
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The plastic footprint of airline travel
Taking a deep dive into airline travel, and the environmental impact of international travel. After one domestic flight and one 14 hour international flight getting to my travel destination, I realised trying to cut out airline waste on my own would be—a waste. A waste of time that is. Sounds defeatist indeed, but the reality is, even if I didn't eat that muffin wrapped in plastic, or I said no plastic swizzle stick in my coffee please, the muffin would still end up in the garbage bin with the rest of the passenger waste, and the swizzle stick would still end up in my coffee. On my return leg from Vancouver I collected every single piece of plastic waste from the flight. I painstakingly cleaned each item before placing it into the plastic bag my blanket came wrapped in. The passenger beside me must have thought I was either super anal about recycling, or simply just nuts. I'm not sure which one! 157g of single use plastic collected by one passenger on an international flight. The single use plastic tally: 1 blanket cover. 2 fruit containers with sealed lids. 2 milk containers (lids not collected). 1 square salad container with lid. 2 rectangular food containers with sealed lids. 3 butter containers (butter not necessary for items served and lids not saved). 3 sets of plastic cutlery packaged in plastic bags. 1 wine bottle. 1 plastic cup used for drinking wine. 1 water bottle (unnecessary, as I took my own water bottle onboard). 3 packages for wrapped food such as breads and muffins. 1 headphone wrapper (bluetooth headsets are not permitted so unfortunately these were required). 1 cling wrap from a sandwich. 3 plastic swizzle sticks — you receive these even when you request not to have one. Not collected were the three coffee cups I drank from, they were paper and it appeared the flight attendants collected these for recycling as they were not typically tossed in general garbage. 40 pieces of single use plastic produced by one passenger, on one international long-haul flight. A total of 40 pieces of single use plastic used by one passenger. The plastic waste weigh-in came at 157g. This may not sound like a lot, and looking at the image it may not look like a look. But let's put that into perspective. On that flight alone there were 236 seats, it was a full plane with the exception of a seat or two. Statistically we will put that aside as the waste accumulated by the general airline traveller would more than likely higher than mine, I took my own water bottle and didn't order anything out of the ordinary or consume large amounts of alcohol. Doing so would have generated a lot more plastic waste. When we look at the airline passengers waste alone from one plane on a one way trip the grand total is: 37 kilograms of single use plastics that won't be recycled. When we extrapolate those numbers across the entire flight schedule of that one route, we're looking at a lot of single use plastic pollution. The flight runs daily, producing 13.5 tonnes of plastic waste each year. And that’s just one airline, one flight, one way! Everyday throughout the year over 100,000 flights are airborne around the globe, serving out food and drinks to passengers in single use plastic containers. The majority of which will end up in waste. Take a moment to think about it. In 2017 more than four billion people boarded aircraft around the world, and many of those were served some sort of food, beverage, blanket or headphones, you guessed it . . . wrapped in, or made of “single use plastic.” You have do the math, as my calculator won’t go that high. A great way to get a visual on how much plastic is travelling across the globe on any given day is to download the app “Flight Radar 24”. This app shows in real time every aircraft that's airborne around the globe at any one time. Now imagine all the plastic waste off all those planes, it’s staggering to say the least. Where does it go? I do not know where the final resting point of airline waste ends up. We were travelling from Canada into Australia. I have read that the Canadian airline waste regulations stipulate all airline waste must be burned. Is this fact? I cannot answer that. Where does the waste end up when it hits Australian soil? Again, further investigation would be required. But what I did notice on the plane is that the flight attendants saved very few items for recycling, including obviously recyclable items like plastic water bottles and small liquor bottles. The management of this waste is not the responsibility of flight attendants, they are simply doing their job. And it was obvious from overheard conversations between staff, getting tasks completed as quickly as possible was a high priority. This plastic pollution issue is also not airline specific, this is common practice on flights throughout the world—every day of the year. What's the Solution? This is a problem that cannot be solved by passengers. No matter how hard we try—taking our own water bottles, travelling with reusable coffee cups or putting reusable bamboo cutlery in our carry on is not going to fix the issue. The pressure needs to be placed on the airline industry. They have international regulations to meet, there's a tight window for flight attendants to deliver food and drink to passengers in a timely manner, none of which the average passenger understands. Each individual airline company needs to come up with a solution to stop this madness. There's always another way. They need to act fast and find a solution, and we as passengers need to demand they take action. What can you do? Contact the airline you travel with and ask them what plastic reduction solutions they are putting into place to reduce their reliance on single use plastic waste. Query them on social media, using the hashtag #earthbeforeplastic.
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EORTH: Earth Before Plastic
EORTH is an old English word for Earth. A period in time before plastic existed on our planet. At EORTH we're taking you back to a time before plastic packaging, before single use plastic products, to a time where we put Earth Before Plastic. By now you are more than likely familiar with the global crisis of plastic pollution, with the biggest offender being single use plastic items. EORTH was founded as one way to help combat this global crisis. EORTH's goal is to stop plastic at the source. If we're able to turn off the plastic tap, you are provided with the best selection of plastic free household goods Australia has to offer. Initially we strived to open a store that was 100% (single use) plastic free, and that is our long-term goal. What we found however, is that it's very difficult to source products that meet the 100% plastic free criteria. As we began the ordering process to stock EORTH we soon realised that sourcing plastic free packaging on the outside was only the first step. At EORTH you won't find products housed in plastic containers as we have sourced products packaged in cardboard, metal and glass or naked packaging! You may however find some stickers, tamper proof security seals or compostable plastics in some of the products we supply. It's may not always be the perfect solution, but we believe this is a better option than purchasing plastic bottles and jars that may or may not get recycled. As a general rule we do not stock compostable plastics that require industrial composting or silicone products. We're always seeking alternatives to products that contain any plastic, and welcome your feedback. EORTH Australia's Plastic Free Shopping Store.
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