A Biodegradable Bottle You Can Recycle Curbside
When it comes to plastic bottles, disposing of plastics #1 and #2 is usually a no-brainer, as bottles made from petroleum are easier to recycle.
But bottles made of natural materials are often sold as “eco-friendly” alternatives to petroleum-based bottles. However, disposing of the bottle can be challenging as many recyclers will not mix bio-based plastics with their traditional counterparts.
Most bottles made from PLA are only biodegradable in a commercial composting system. Photo: ENSO Bottles LLC
But ENSO Bottles’ new EcoPure technology is a bottle made of polyethylene terephtlhalate (PET), the most commonly recycled plastic resin and was treated so it could also biodegrade, possibly solving the end-of-life dilemma.
One of the challenges of polylactic acid (PLA) bottles is that they can’t be recycled in a PET stream, as an entire load of plastic resin could become unusable.
The prescribed solution for PLA bottles is to compost them. But even commercial composters can have difficulty generating high-enough temperatures for these bottles to break down in a timely manner.
With ENSO, the PET is treated with organic compounds that attract microbes, which allows the bottles to break down over time. ENSO claims its bottles will biodegrade in one to five years, in a landfill or via compost. While this is longer than it would take for a PLA bottle to biodegrade, ENSO bottles also have an indefinite shelf-life.
According to ENSO, the bottles have the same physical composition as other PET bottles, meaning they can be recycled at any location that accepts PET. PET is among the more valuable materials you can recycle and is reprocessed into material such as carpet, jacket lining and even new plastic bottles.
UPDATE:
The Association of Postconsumer Plastics Recyclers (APR) claims the recyclability of PET bottles containing various degradable additives is not in fact proven.
“APR has repeatedly asked all degradable additive folks to prove no harm done,” David Cornell, technical director for APR, tells Earth911.com. “That means not just that a bottle can be freshly made and is an OK bottle. Degradable additive advocates must show proper and complete sets of data that confirm no problems with used bottles being baled, stored, reclaimed to flake/pellets, made into next uses, and those ‘next use’ service lives and capabilities are unimpaired.”
“None of the degradable additive folks has a complete data set showing no harm done,” he continues. “Without a complete data set, no claim of recyclability with existing PET is valid.”
As of June 17th 2011 we have upgraded our comment system to use Facebook comments. The below comments are closed and are listed for historical purposes.
Joe Hruska
posted on October 27th, 2009 at 7:20 am
Why would we want to bidegrade a valuable resin like PET or compromise the resins going into new products? This does not make sense to me Trey. Please explain your logic on this. Has any work been done to certify the recyclability of these bottles? Also landfills are tombs meant to keep materials from degrading – if these bottles end up in landfill I would consider them sorting mistakes and most of all lost opportunity. In the end you may as well just have the pure PET resin and recycle it into new bottles or new products and not split it into a millions of pieces of unrecoverable PET molecules.
jeff
posted on October 27th, 2009 at 10:48 am
Trey, you should have done your homework before posting this and relying on the promotional materials. The major recycling organizations have warned most beverage groups to avoid these “biodegradable” bottles until further research/proof is provided that they are not a detriment to the recycle stream. Also, promoting biodegradation of PET is NOT the sustainable solution, of such a valuable material… it is more hype than substance… PET can be reused over and over in various applications. Biodegradation loses that value… Also if it biodegrades in nature, the fragments can be dangerous to wildlife… I can go on… A site like Earth911 should do better homework..
Max
posted on October 27th, 2009 at 1:19 pm
I believe Trey did do his homework. Recycling is an important aspect of helping conserve natural resources and improving our environment but recycling isn’t a standalone program. Recycling isn’t able to do the job of improving the environment all by itself. It is important that products be designed to be used, reused, recycled and then when the life of the product is over, the resources reclaimed or returned to the earth as a natural substance. Biodegradable plastic is an important part of helping the environment. Biodegradable plastics can be used, reused, recycled and if they end up in a landfill….like more than 70% of all plastics do, they will biodegrade in an anaerobic or aerobic environment producing landfill gases that can be used to produce clean energy.
I would like to recommend our web site FAQ section; it has a lot of good information on the differences between compostable, oxodegradable and the ENSO biodegradable plastic bottle.
Biodegradation by itself isn’t a standalone program either; however, it’s an important step in developing products that are better for the environment. Status Quo isn’t going to be good enough and as producers of products we’ve got to do a better job of designing products/packaging that can be used, reused, recycled and reclaimed. Recycling rates for all products in other countries outside the U.S. is far higher than here in the U.S. If we start thinking outside the box, we might be able to reduce plastic pollution, save scarce resources and improve the environment.
Max
http://www.ensobottles.com
Patty
posted on October 28th, 2009 at 6:08 pm
Max, if ENSO is so confident that your “degradable” PET bottle will not create a problem with PET bottle recycling, then you should prove it by testing ENSO bottles using the Association of Postconsumer Plastic Recycler’s testing protocols and making the results public.
Steve
posted on February 26th, 2010 at 5:26 pm
Trey:
Do your homework on additives; EcoPure (ENSO Bottle Ingredient) is Patented and is FDA Approved, meaning they can produce the data you’re refering to.
Steve
Tucson