Breaking down biodegradability and incineration
Part of the problem with landfill waste is that it takes up so much space. Waste solutions such as biodegradable plastic and incineration that are seemingly safe for the environment and make our “trash” disappear appear to be a great option. An item made of biodegradable plastic, or PLA (polylactic acid) is appealing because you can throw it away and it will (supposedly) disintegrate and disappear back to where it came from. Incineration whisks away our trash with a puff of smoke.
The problem is that biodegradable plastics often don’t go anywhere, and incineration causes just as much harm, if not more, than the plastic would in a landfill. If you throw your biodegradable iced tea cup into the trash, it will be carried to landfill. However, it needs oxygen in order to decompose, and high enough temperatures, which it won’t get in the landfill because there is no circulation in a pile of trash that large. Your cup will live in the landfill just as long as an ordinary plastic cup would.
If you try to compost that cup at home, like the 5 percent of Americans who compost, it’s going to be tough. That same heat and intense oxygen flow needed to break it down won’t be readily available in a home compost pile either. Municipal compost is available in incredibly limited quantities; for example, San Francisco offers it, but New York and many other major cities and regions do not.
If your plastic iced-tea cup goes to the incinerator, the burning plastic will release gases, ashes and toxic waste into the air, which is incredibly harmful to our lungs and can contribute to smog. According to Zero Waste America, incinerators merely “convert waste into hazardous emissions”, and are one of the main contributors to the load of dioxins in our air.
If incinerators release this incredible amount of harmful waste into our air, it can’t be a better option than a landfill. If biodegradable plastic doesn’t break down easily in landfills or in home compost piles, and municipal compost isn’t widely available, the biodegradable plastics can’t be as “friendly” to the environment as we imagine them to be.
On top of the truth that biodegradable plastics and incineration methods that make our waste “disappear” don’t end up being environmentally-friendly at all, we also need to think about the entire life cycle of a piece of plastic, whether it be an iced tea cup, a butter tub, or a chip bag. We pull resources from our Earth, expose the Earth to the byproducts of this manufacturing, all for something that is used for minutes, or a few days at most.
When we simply put the item back into the Earth, or burn it, all of the energy and output that went into that product are essentially wasted and worthless. In order to make this energy use more worthwhile, the plastic needs to have as long of a life as possible, which means reusing or recycling the plastic as much as possible before throwing it aside.
The solution to the problem lies in two places. First, we must think about the way that we are creating plastics. They must be made so that they can be reused, and so they are not as harmful when put back into the Earth. Following that, companies - any kind of waste disposal company - must move towards being able to collect and process biodegradable materials properly, so that municipal compost and biodegradable disposal that truly work are available on a large scale and people can actually take advantage of the biodegradability feature. We could also consider if incineration of any plastic will ever not release dangerous gasses into the air.
TerraCycle itself has been working to team up with companies that offer biodegradable plastic so that it can be processed properly. Being an eco-friendly company means that we need to think and investigate every “eco” option before we support it and before we offer it ourselves as a waste solution. If we want to offer our customers and clients the ultimate green options, we have to offer consider whether these disposal methods and plastics truly are beneficial for the environment. And here’s my bottom line: we want to solve for every waste stream, and that means helping find a compost solution for biodegradable plastics - and also learning how it can be reused and recycled first. On top of that, incineration should never be an option as long as plastics release dioxins and hazardous fumes.
Janaye commented:
Way to use the internet to help poelpe solve problems!
Irina commented:
Our pickup will take plcitsas #1-2, newspapers, cardboard and magazines. All things considered, I don’t generate too much other plastic, but it’s only because I haven’t been buying much. I get a kick out of things like CFLs (yay! Good for the environment!) packed in plastic that will never degrade, and is not recyclable.
Helen commented:
Children’s Workshops at the Green Architecture DayWhat a fun workshop! Not only enolyabje but thought -provoking too. We wont be looking at Tetra packs with the same eyes from now on – you could see the children’s minds working on all the recycling possibilities!Frances Parkin (Parent)I thoroughly enjoyed this workshop; it really made me think about all the different ways of recycling and how to save the environment. Philip showed me how to make a wallet out of a Tetra pack and in the end we had something to take home.Verity Parkin Age 11
Lii commented:
OMG! The Chinese never cease to amaze me! What a solution! I can tell that this was tuhhoogrly thought out and tested before announcing such a good project to be implemented right away! Can’t wait for phase II! .-= Linda wants you to read =-.
E=mc2 commented:
Part of the problem with landfill waste is that it takes up so much space. (Fallacious – Actually the things that are in landfills take up much less space in a landfill than they did when they were outside the landfill.) Waste solutions such as biodegradable plastic and incineration that are seemingly safe for the environment and make our “trash” disappear appear to be a great option. (Disappear? That would be called “magic”.) An item made of biodegradable plastic, or PLA (polylactic acid) is appealing because you can throw it away and it will (supposedly) disintegrate and disappear (Again, that would be magic.) back to where it came from. Incineration whisks away our trash with a puff of smoke.
The problem is that biodegradable plastics often don’t go anywhere, and incineration causes just as much harm (If done correctly, the only thing incineration releases is carbon dioxide and water.), if not more, than the plastic would in a landfill. If you throw your biodegradable iced tea cup into the trash, it will be carried to landfill. However, it needs oxygen in order to decompose, and high enough temperatures, which it won’t get in the landfill because there is no circulation in a pile of trash that large. Your cup will live in the landfill just as long as an ordinary plastic cup would. (Again, matter doesn’t go away. It’s just moved around.)
If you try to compost that cup at home, like the 5 percent of Americans who compost, it’s going to be tough. That same heat and intense oxygen flow needed to break it down won’t be readily available in a home compost pile either. Municipal compost is available in incredibly limited quantities; for example, San Francisco offers it, but New York and many other major cities and regions do not.
If your plastic iced-tea cup goes to the incinerator, the burning plastic will release gases, ashes and toxic waste into the air, which is incredibly harmful to our lungs and can contribute to smog. According to Zero Waste America, incinerators merely “convert waste into hazardous emissions”, and are one of the main contributors to the load of dioxins in our air. (Does Zero Waste America have any physicists? Nothing is wasted, ever.)
If incinerators release this incredible amount of harmful waste into our air, it can’t be a better option than a landfill. (Do environmentalists study science or logic and reasoning?) If biodegradable plastic doesn’t break down easily in landfills or in home compost piles, and municipal compost isn’t widely available, the biodegradable plastics can’t be as “friendly” to the environment as we imagine them to be.
On top of the truth (truth?) that biodegradable plastics and incineration methods that make our waste “disappear” don’t end up being environmentally-friendly at all, we also need to think about the entire life cycle of a piece of plastic, whether it be an iced tea cup, a butter tub, or a chip bag. We pull resources from our Earth, expose the Earth to the byproducts of this manufacturing, (Were the by-products shipped in from outer space?) all for something that is used for minutes, or a few days at most.
When we simply put the item back into the Earth, or burn it, all of the energy and output that went into that product are essentially wasted and worthless (Matter and energy are not created or lost, what’s here in the universe is here, period.). In order to make this energy use more worthwhile, the plastic needs to have as long of a life as possible, which means reusing or recycling the plastic as much as possible before throwing it aside.
The solution to the problem lies in two places. First, we must think about the way that we are creating plastics. They must be made so that they can be reused, and so they are not as harmful when put back into the Earth. (Doesn’t plastic come from oil that is just converted plants and animals?) Following that, companies - any kind of waste disposal company - must move towards being able to collect and process biodegradable materials properly, so that municipal compost and biodegradable disposal that truly work are available on a large scale and people can actually take advantage of the biodegradability feature. We could also consider if incineration of any plastic will ever not release dangerous gasses into the air.
