Comments on: What “Bio” Really Means

By: Ruth Huschle

Ruth Huschle — Sun, 30 Jan 2011 17:39:39 +0000

I agree with Leslie, although nobody has (from what I can see) mentioned the heavy metals including lead and cadmium. GMO Corn is the basis of PLA and will be force fed due to our Monsanto, Cargill and Dow stacked goverment. Connect the dots and follow the money.

Aside from the heavy metal issue, it’s much easier to bury some film in the backyard and see what breaks down. It’s not PLA and as soon as you start adding barrier layers to Nature Works (Innovia), you have the same issues as PLA. It sounds like a conspiracy, but in reality, it’s big (huge) business making a relatively simple concept – exteremly complex so that they can spin it into rolls and sell it to an easily pacified market.

By: Ria

Ria — Fri, 08 Oct 2010 11:17:13 +0000

who would have thought that biodegradable isn’t as it sounds?

By: laura Rodriguez

laura Rodriguez — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 06:02:44 +0000

This is an interesting and enlightening discussion. I too appreciate all who are looking into these issues. I have been looking into the benefits of polystyrene (#6 plastic), and as of yet have not been disappointed. If you grew up in the seventies, as I did, this sounds counter-eco, but the product is actually 95% air, and so it uses next to nothing in material, and can be produced without harmful emissions, and recycled into other plastics. I wonder sometimes as I listen to the “bioplastic” if in some ways we are still back in the seventies, and considering littering practices, or if many don’t have a complete understanding of landfill design and function in our country. California now has only 3 landfills which are designed to allow biodegradation, all others are specifically designed to stop biodegradation. If I could for a moment equate the ecosystem to the body, and ask why there is such a push to use land and plants to produce one-time use products that we feel good about tossing. We wouldn’t feel good about good about cutting out our lungs (please exuse my crude metaphor) just because it would end up in the colon. What is the attraction to onetime use (bio-sources), when we could reuse petro-based plastics for years in a reusable/recycled loop, and in many cases use fewer resources to produce and recycle and transport the many products in the plastic stream. Face it, much like metals, we are stuck on the properties and performance of plastic products. I’m sure there is a place for bio-plastics in the big picture, but be careful not to use it for a bandaid to cover our guilt. I’m glad to see people fully considering the options and the ecological costs of our many options, but in my mind, using any natural resource only once is not a sensible goal. If we use any resource, I would like to see it remain in use for years to come, so that we do not have to go back for more. Unless there’s something I’m unaware of, soil is the only reuse opportunity for “bio-plastics”. Is there a shortage of soil? There is a fast growing market for recycled plastic products and the costs of recycled raw materials is rising because of this demand. Is the call for soil going to sustain this push to use bio-plastics. Re-use, ultimately, may be the only way we can use up less.

By: Kate Lewis

Kate Lewis — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 15:41:40 +0000

Excellent coverage of these issues and related comments, thank you all.

If you’re taking time to research and learn more, I recommend you check out the US Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) BioPreferred program. It’s a USDA-led initiative designed to increase the purchase, use, and evaluation of biobased products, including biopolymers.

USDA defines biobased products as those composed in whole or in significant part of biological ingredients; forestry or renewable agricultural materials — including plant, animal, or marine (e.g. algae) ingredients. USDA identifies more than 4,500 biobased products (products must meet/exceed minimum biobased content) in 42 product categories as “BioPreferred designated” products.

Are biobased products ‘greener’? We’ve begun the dialogue on the environmental assessment of these products via a public meeting held in Jan 2010 – meeting materials are available on the home page of our website.

Kate Lewis, USDA
Deputy Program Manager, BioPreferred

By: Simiya

Simiya — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 00:55:43 +0000

Greetings

This is a good article making it real simple for the grass root.What we have learnt is very usefulfor the group.

Thanks Jennifer Berry

By: Dinesh Thirupuvanam

Dinesh Thirupuvanam — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 23:58:54 +0000

Iciani – Thanks for the follow-up. Will check out the natureworks LCA study. Also, I like your point on GMO/prions testing at a local campus. Actually jogged my memorty that I have a good friend who’s a Chemical Engineering PHD at Stanford – may ask him to do this for me. If I do I’ll try and share the results back here.

By: lciani

lciani — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 17:39:46 +0000

1) There is no DNA in polymers. PLA is a polymer, so there is no GMO, no DNA information in this or any plastic. Even if GMO corn is at the start of the chain that leads to PLA articles sold on the market, those products will not contain any GMO nor will it contain prions. Buy PLA cups or plates, take it to the chemical lab of the nearest campus and ask them to check for GMO/prions…

2) NatureWorks have put together an impressive LCA study on PLA which you can get from their website.

By: Dinesh Thirupuvanam

Dinesh Thirupuvanam — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 01:51:51 +0000

Agreed – Thanks for breaking down a rather complex topic. I’m aware of most of this, but I know many folks aren’t (thus a simple synopsis is always helpful). I also run a green purchasing co-operative, http://www.VivBizClub, and thus am always curious to learn more. A few questions:
1) Jennifer – do you have a list of the cities in the US that offer hauling of compost to the citizens and businesses. FindAComposter.com is helpful for locating a composting facility, but I’m looking to specifically identify municipalities that haul as well.
2) Leslie – do you have more details on the life-cycle analysis of PLA. I’d really like to be more well read here.
3) Leslie – if you have any further information or know or any ongoing studies regarding GMO corn used to make PLA (or potentially leaching of harmful materials from PLA based products), I’d be curious to learn more.

By: Jared

Jared — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 19:42:49 +0000

I credit the author with doing an excellent job of relating a complicated topic in a very lucid manner.

The comments by Max and Leslie do a good job of highlighting how the concept of sustainable really needs to be thought through. For something to be truly sustainable, a cyclical relationship between producing a product and then having the waste be reclaimed with no net loss of raw materials is paramount. Furthermore, the energy needed for the processing should be the only net input and this should ultimately be derived from a renewable energy source. Until we have plastics that are derived from a biomaterial, processed using renewable energy, and returned to the original source, the concept of a truly sustainable way of living will escape us.

I’m not fully aware of the potential pitfalls of the GM corn used to provide the raw materials, so I will refrain from commenting in this area.

By: Max

Max — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 17:49:48 +0000

Leslie, thank you for your excellent comments. There is so much money (private and government subsidies) being used to sell the concept of PLA (and ethanol) that I’m afraid the public is going to buy it hook, line and sinker. You can read blog after blog about how terrible something is because it is made from petroleum products; yet they still get in their cars, planes and trains and think nothing of burning up a scarce non-renewable resource like petroleum. I believe we all need to become more educated on what it really means to be “green” or “sustainable.” It might sound like the best idea ever to make things from renewable plants and it could be….but let’s not use land that should be growing food grade crops to make our fuel and plastics. I think a better alternative would be to use algae for manufacturing ethanol and plastics.
We need to say no to genetically modified food crops for the production of ethanol, PLA plastic and high fructose corn syrup all of which have the potential to destroy our food supplies.
Max