In my article on plastic in September (The Story of Plastic), I ended with a look at some of the measures being taken to reduce the use of plastic or to replace it with biodegradable alternatives. This follow-up piece looks at some of the latest positive developments and a few other bits of news on the topic.

A biodegradable alternative to plastic cups, straws and the like.

Sugar cane is widely grown throughout the world. It contains around 10% sugar which is yielded through pulverizing the plant and squeezing the juice out of it. The 90% left over becomes waste or “bagasse”.

Most often this is burned to power the mills that make the sugar, so it is not wasted. But Zhou Hongli, a mechanical engineer at Northeastern University in Boston, has experimented with ways to turn it into a biodegradable alternative to plastic for consumer uses.

Because bagasse is composed of short fibers that are unable to overlap sufficiently to confer resilience to the finished product, previous attempts to make cups, etc from it foundered when it disintegrated when wet. Dr. Zhu, therefore, sought a long fiber plant product to add to the mix and give the final product the necessary strength. She found it in bamboo which is plentiful, has strong long fibers and biodegrades naturally. When mixed with bagasse, the process also mobilizes some of the lignin in the fiber which makes the end product very stiff and water-repelling. A cup made of this bagasse and bamboo mix can hold up for nearly two hours with near-boiling water in it, longer than generally required of a disposable cup. And it is fully biodegradable.

The cost, even without scale, to produce consumer items out of this material is c.$2,333 per ton, half of what other biodegradable cups costs and only slightly above the $2,177 per ton it costs to make plastic cups–but without the long term pollution impact of plastic in both the production and waste phases, which ought to be added to its cost.

The new product will doubtless require testing and it will be opposed by the plastic industry which will seek to protect their profits. But if those tests prove successful, the world may have a truly biodegradable, competitively priced alternative to plastic cups, straws, disposable plates, cutlery, etc, made of natural materials and which, once used, could be safely put in the garbage and dumped in landfills without worries.

Bagasse is already finding a home particularly as a replacement for polystyrene food takeout containers.

Shampoo bottle alternatives.

Shampoo and cosmetic bottles exemplify the design flaw inherent with so much plastic packaging. The product inside is normally used within a year of purchase, but the plastic container can last for 50+ years in a landfill. Well, finally, some companies are doing something about that mismatch.

Beauty firm L’Oreal has launched an eco-beauty range called Seed Phytonutrients. The products inside are made from 93-100% natural ingredients that are cruelty-free and paraben-free.

But it is the packaging that I want to bring to your attention. The outer shell of the bottles is 100% recycled cardboard and newspaper which can be recycled again or composted. The inner liner has plastic in it, but 60% less than normal rigid plastic bottles and it is a non-laminated mono polymer that is recyclable.

Now, the reality is that consumers are unlikely to separate outside from inside shells of the bottles and recycling facilities are not set up to do this either. So it is not a perfect product in any way. Still, at least it shows that a major cosmetic company is aware of the problem and is trying to do something about it. This is just the start. Watch for more advances ahead.

How about a plant-based alternative to plastic shampoo sachets and maybe even bags?

Cambridge University scientists have harnessed a new plant protein material that could provide global manufacturers with a solution to the micro-plastics dilemma. Made from plants, such as peas, it has the potential to be used for everything from bags to sachets.

Xampla, a spin-out from the university, has produced a natural ‘microcapsule’ to keep the fragrance fresh inside personal and home care products like fabric conditioner. Currently, brands have to use microcapsules made from synthetic polymers (ie traditional plastic) which get washed down the drain, pollute the environment and are set to be banned by legislators In the UK.

Unlike current alternatives to microplastics which are based on plant polysaccharides, such as cellulose and algae, Xampla’s plant protein materials do not rely on chemical cross-linking for their performance. That enables them to decompose quickly and completely in the natural environment. It is early days for the product, but it could replace plastic in this niche area once production achieves scale.

Cambridge University in 2019 set up the Centre for Circular Economy Approaches to Eliminate Plastic Waste, an inter-disciplinary body seeking to tackle the problems of plastic from manufacturing to waste. Have a look at their website.

The world’s first biodegradable coffee capsule.

Golden Compound of Ladbergen, Germany and Alpla from Austria have developed a market-ready, world-first biodegradable coffee capsule that consumers with their own coffee makers can dispose of in their home compost. The capsule is made from sunflower seed shells, a waste material resulting from the production of sunflower oil that is widely available and cheap.

It is completely biodegradable in the garden compost or a landfill within a maximum period of six months. The residual coffee grounds are also compostable. As a by-product of the food industry, it is not in competition with food production, while by replacing plastic, it can have a positive impact on the environment through the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions as well as reducing the plastic waste problem.

Beer manufacturers are making progress.

You may remember that in my earlier article I mentioned a company in England that uses brewery wastewater to make a strong, transparent, 100% biodegradable packaging product that is even edible. There is also positive innovation coming from Saltwater Brewery in Florida which has developed a material for their six-pack rings (usually plastic) which is not only biodegradable and compostable but also edible (see the cover image of this post). Made of barley and wheat remnants from the brewing process, if it is dropped in the ocean, it can be eaten by fish. My cover image is courtesy of this innovative company.

Cellophane wrap without the plastic.

Created by the Futamura Group from FSC certified wood pulp sourced from responsibly-managed plantations, NatureFlex can replace cellophane plastic made from petrochemicals, with all the pollution and waste problems it causes. Being cellulose-based, the new product is fully biodegradable and meets global standards for home and industrial composting. Their products also extend to chocolate wrappings, potato chip bags, coffee packages, fruit containers, bread bags and so on.

It is early days for this product too, but it is an interesting innovation.

Getting your fill with EcoFlo.

Produced by Greenlight Packaging of the UK from corn starch or sorghum, this loose fill can replace that horrible non-recyclable polystyrene fill. The product is biodegradable and odor-free.

Bacterial enzymes as a recycling agent.

Scientists have created a mutant bacterial enzyme that not only breaks down plastic bottles in hours, but the leftover material is good enough to be recycled into high-quality new bottles. This optimized enzyme–first discovered in a compost heap of leaves eight years ago–is able to reduce plastic bottles to simple chemical elements that can be efficiently reprocessed into new, food-grade plastic.

The French company behind the discovery, Carbios, says it is aiming for industrial-scale recycling within five years and it has partnered with major companies including Pepsi, Nestle and L’Oréal to further advance research and development. The team, led by Professor Alain Marty from the Université de Toulouse and Science Director at Carbios, began by analyzing 100,000 micro-organisms for potential candidates, including the leaf compost bug, which was first discovered in 2012. “After two years of the work by 20 scientists, we obtained this incredible enzyme able to deconstruct 90 percent of PET in less than 10 hours,” Professor Marty told Forbes. And the new process can depolymerize any kind of PET – transparent, colored, opaque, amorphous as well as crystalline, fibers – which can then be used to make a wide range of new PET products.

The problem: cost. Waste bottles must be ground up and heated to 72 degrees C or 162 degrees F before the new enzyme is mixed in, meaning it all has to be done in a recycling plant with a lot of energy used in the process. This means that the recycled PET is expensive and will find it difficult to compete with virgin plastic. The reality, of course, is that virgin plastic is grossly underpriced: it has a highly polluting production process with a vast greenhouse gas footprint which is not included in the cost calculation. (The production of plastic water bottles alone uses 17 million barrels of oil a year, slightly more than it would take to fill one million cars a year with fuel.) Cut the subsidies and price in those externalities, as I am suggesting, and virgin plastic prices would shoot up. And this does not even include pricing in the destruction they do in the environment once they become waste. Details of the new enzyme appear in the April 2020 issue of Nature.

Be careful about bio-plastics.

There are a lot of developments in the sphere of bio-plastics. These are biodegradable or compostable plastics made from natural substances instead of petroleum. Sounds like a great idea, right?

Unfortunately, most bioplastics don’t break down in home composts, landfills, or loose in the environment, but instead require commercial composting facilities, which are not often available. Bioplastics can therefore contaminate municipal recycling programs when people unknowingly add them to their recycling. Many bioplastics even contain significant amounts of conventional plastic.

As with plastic, the industrial infrastructure to process compostable plastics, from collection through to high-temperature composting is simply not in place. Nor is it likely to be so for many years.

The key message: WE NEED TO LEGISLATE AGAINST SINGLE-USE PLASTIC ITEMS!

Greenpeace suit says Walmart lies about "recyclable" plastics.

As discussed in my original note, only 9% of plastic currently produced is actually recycled. The triangles with a number inside that you see on plastic containers is largely a ruse created by the plastic industry to make their product more acceptable to consumers. Take a look at this NPR article: How Big Oil Misled The Public Into Believing Plastic Would Be Recycled. Greenpeace wants more retailers to own up to that fact and is taking Walmart to court to that end. Read the story in CBS News.

Plastic Pollution Coalition

Have a look at the Plastic Pollution Coalition website. It has some important videos and petitions. The Coalition has set out a Presidential Plastics Action Plan with eight priority actions. Many of these reflect the confluence solutions set out in my original note which you can access via the link at the bottom of this article.

Use the purchasing power of the federal government to eliminate single-use plastic items and replace them with reusable products.
Suspend and deny permits for new or expanded plastic production facilities, associated infrastructure projects, and exports.
Make corporate polluters pay and reject false solutions.
Advance environmental justice in petrochemical corridors.
Update existing federal regulations using the best available science and technology to curtail pollution from plastic facilities.
Stop subsidizing plastic producers.
Join international efforts to address the global plastic pollution crisis through new and strengthened multilateral agreements.
Reduce and mitigate the impacts of abandoned, discarded and lost fishing gear.

“Plastic pollutes at every stage of its existence, from extraction, use, to disposal,” said Julia Cohen, MPH, Co-Founder and Managing Director of Plastic Pollution Coalition. “Our 1,200 member groups and businesses that form Plastic Pollution Coalition support this U.S Presidential Plastics Action Plan as a much-needed step toward a plastic pollution-free America and a more just, equitable world.”

I support this coalition. Will you?