Eco Friendly House And Garden

Should you use normal plastic loads of times – or biodegradable plastic just the once?

There have been many recent developments in the plastic industry and the most controversial is the biodegradable versions that we had all waited so long for!

However, there are some unforeseen problems with these new versions – and it is a difficult eco friendly choice between them and ‘normal’ plastics.

See the 2 examples below of the 2 ways in which these plastic can be more eco friendly:

1) Buy a product in a normal plastic bottle and either re-use it forever or recycle it again and again, or;

2) Buy a product in a biodegradable plastic bottle (either HBP or OBP) that contains ingredients that will speed up its bio-degradation or turn it into compost when you dispose of it.

The 2 don’t mix!  It has to be 1 or the other!

What Does Biodegradable Mean?
If you first consider the word ‘biodegradable’ in its general meaning – it is any product (solid or liquid) that will break down naturally into environmentally safe and virtually natural products that can be used by living organisms in around 6 months.

However, there is no legal definition in terms of products in the stores – so anything claiming to be ‘biodegradable’ could be just that – or could be nothing of the sort; even if it has green pattern all over it and a picture of some wildlife on it!

So, what these biodegradable plastics are trying to do is to be better than existing plastics.  They claim that they will break down into less harmful and polluting particles relatively quickly compared to standard plastics, and so will have less of a detrimental effect on wildlife in the long term.

Don’t forget that existing plastics will also break down naturally (in the sense that if you leave a carrier bag part buried in your garden – it will eventually fall apart) but the plastic doesn’t actually disappear, it will just be in ever smaller parts.

Why Biodegradable Plastic Then?
Well, there has been an awful lot of bad press for plastic lately – what with sea turtles swallowing carrier bags and albatross feeding bits of plastic to their young – not to mention the Pacific Ocean Garbage Patch that people were looking for a way to make plastic bottles, containers and other products get a lot smaller a lot quicker.

By making a plastic that breaks down as soon as possible means that whole bottles and bags won’t be found floating in the sea killing birds and turtles any more!

Washed Up Plastic Waste

You still need to be aware of the way the products break down though to be most effective – for example the 2 types of biodegradable plastic currently available as HBP (hydro-biodegradable plastic) and OBP (oxy-biodegradable plastic).

And as their name suggests; one needs water to break down quickly and the other needs air – so bury these in bin bags in land fill sites won’t really make either of them disappear any quicker than normal plastics – but imagine they were litter in the countryside or rubbish floating in the Atlantic.

It’s a whole different story then!  They would soon disappear making our wild areas cleaner and safer for living things!

What’s The Problem Then?
We have discussed that biodegradable plastics must be the best for the environment then – as they don’t stay in the environment for ever and ever as whole plastic products – they break down fast into less harmful particles!  Right?

Well, it’s not so clear cut as you can’t recycle them. 

Adding either HBP’s or OBP’s to recycled plastic can actually be more harmful than good – as these new plastics are designed to break down – so they can actually render a recycled plastic product virtually useless in just a few months!  And many councils are actually trying to get them banned as a result!

We all know that there is only a reason to make a product if it is financially viable – so reducing the need for plastic recycling could cause an end to recycled products!

And if the biodegradable products are meant to break down – then we are actually creating a market for more and more plastic to be created.  Rather than re-use your old toiletries bottles and food containers again and again – you would have to keep buying new ones instead!

So, is the new plastic actually any more eco friendly than the old?

The Environmental Cost of Cheap Plastic doesn’t make for a great story.

However, there are some people out there who want to make a difference – and a crazy millionaire is about to set sail in a 60ft boat made of plastic bottled stuck together to prove a point!

He is trying highlight the problem of the ever growing ‘sea of plastic’ in the Pacific Ocean. This ‘sea’ is a place where all floating rubbish from the worlds oceans eventually ends up. It then becomes ‘trapped’ there, stuck together in this one place somewhere between Hawaii and mainland US.

This mass of rubbish floating just under the surface currently weighs an estimated 3.5 tonnes and is around 3 times the size of Japan or larger than Bolivia!

The Problem:
The UN estimates that there are over 45,000 pieces of plastic floating on every square mile of the oceans – devastating the wildlife that depends on it for survival. We are all aware that turtles eat carrier bags thinking they are jellyfish and seabirds collect them from the seas and feed them to their young instead of actual food – dooming them to starvation.

Because it isn’t biodegradable, plastic is with us for ever. Every piece of plastic that has ever been made since it’s invention is still here today. Yes, it’s not all whole pieces – plastic is gradually worn down or crushed by animals and people and much is buried under the earth – but it is all still there, doing nothing but damage.

More frightening is the fact that figures suggest that over 100m tonnes more plastic is being produced each year!!! All because of human demands.

How it’s generated:
Starting with food: Think of all those individual bottles of kids fizzy soda available, all the individually wrapped cheeses rather than fresh chunks off the deli counter. Shrink wrapped vegetables rather than fresh from the farm store!

Then the home: Disposable pens are thrown away, dropped or broken every day. Because they are cheap we don’t really care about them. Like so many modern technologies, it’s cheaper to throw them out than get them repaired. Disposible anything is a disaster waiting to happen – lighters, cups, cutlery, bottles, plates, straws, jewelry, razors and diapers to name a few.

If you buy things that have been designed to be thrown out after a short time or even one single use then you are directly contributing to this environmental disaster. Companies are not going to invest money in making these disposible items recyclable either if you are buying them as a product you know you are not going to use again.

Would you put loads of effort into making your friend an expensive gift if you knew it would be thrown out straight after?

What you can do?
Here is a list of ideas for you to help reduce your plastic use, affect manufacturers and clean up after yourself and others:

1. Never drop litter or expect someone else to take care of your waste.
2. Try to avoid buying over-wrapped products – even if the packaging is recyclable, it still had to be created and who is to say that the person who uses your recycled plastic won’t dump it later.
3. Buy larger containers of your favourite packaged products so that there is more product per outer wrapping. You could even write to the companies to ask if they could reduce their plastic packaging or offer refills rather than whole new products.
4. Let your local stores know that you would rather see less packaged fresh produce by actively buying those products that are currently loose. These include meat, fish, cheese, fruit, vegetables, bread and pastries to name a few. This way the stores sales reports will hightlight customer shopping patterns and improve their service in those areas.
5. Spend that bit extra for technology and office equipment so that it lasts longer. Better quality products will be cheaper in the long run as when maintained they will have a very long shelf life. Think about what you want to buy before you make a purchase so that your technology isn’t overtaken in a month forcing you to upgrade again. If you reduce your demand on manufacturers of cheap appliances, they will have to improve their products to stay in the market.
6. Don’t buy disposable anything. If you plan your time and activities better, you will never just need that one little thing to tide you over – and disposable goods usually come in large pack sizes creating more waste than you needed!
7. Take time to reuse everything plastic you can – use bottles for mini garden cloches, tubs for jams and preserves, to store leftovers, and many more uses.
8. Recycling can sometimes be trickier as many agencies send waste to other regions or other countries to be processed creating more energy waste than necessary – as long as it’s cheaper, it will be done like this. Make sure you know where your waste and recycling is processed and voice you opinions if you aren’t happy about it.
9. Organise a beach-combing or woodland team to collect litter and plastics before they do more harm. Not only are these great fun, they make your own environment look better and improve the health of your wildlife all at the same time. And then you can dispose of the waste more responsibly.