A year ago I wrote to Marks and Spencer about their cornstarch derived plastic packaging. Its worth looking into isnt it; to find out the facts. All Rights Reserved. You could try the American Plastics Council Im not sure who the UK equivalent would be. Dissolving. We cant cross the gap like that. (would love to hear your thoughts on this) As such, we do use plastics on many products and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future. We have decided not to use the so called degradable materials and oxy-degradeable materials as we believe them to be misleading. Wormeries make the problem obvious because they use concentrated food waste and tea bags tend to be a fair proportion of that. By making a shift toward sustainability, supply chains ultimately lower their costs because the raw materials needed to make corn starch packaging is cheap and easy to produce. That situation will not last indefinitely. Did you know about this? Easy to recycle at home. Mrs G, awesome investigation! However, as a food retailer we must consider the protection of food first and foremost. No, although states like California are considering legislation that would ban polystyrene entirely. Remember the choice for waste that cannot be reuse, reduce or recycled is to either landfill or burn. at the moment, its either landfill or energy recovery. I asked whether I could just throw this packaging in the bin (yeah right; as if) or whether it needed something special doing with it. To begin, by converting to maize starch PLA, you may strengthen your brand by portraying yourself as an ethical and socially conscious firm. Green Cell Foam. This plastic liner can be difficult to recycle and adds an unwanted level of complexity to the end-of-life disposal process . The food waste mantra is dragged out again to dodge responsibilty for their wasteful practices, which councils and householders have to pay for. You will appreciate that as the materials are new, our knowledge is constantly increasing. I'm normally the one telling you to STOP throwing things in the read more, We have an agreement here at Zero Waste Towers that I don't speak to my read more. I usually do my supermarket shopping at Sainsburys, where the organic fruit and veg is wrapped in compostable plastic, which is made from maize, sugar cane or starch, and they say that it in tests it breaks down faster than a banana skin: http://www.j-sainsbury.com/cr/index.asp?pageid=69&year=archive§ion=3 However it does not say whether the tests were based on industrial or home composting, and in practice I have found large bits of this plastic that have not broken down. In cineration should not be discounted because of some NIMBYs who do not have the expertise to understand or design such a plant. I feel that rubbish is not rubbish at all; it is simply a resource we do not yet know how to deal with. 2. Feel free to read them. It took almost 100 years for the consumer society to get where we are now we can spare 20 years to put right what once went wrong by re-imagining things sustainably, but we will have to ignore the siren corporate calls for easy disposal technology. The incinerator industry has tidal waves of greenwash flooding around which sound sensible to short term analyses which do not sufficiently consider the long term goals. From reading everyones comments it seems maybe not. To get rid of stains, especially blood stains, you can mix corn starch and water together to make a paste. Myth: Containers must be squeaky clean in order to be recycled. If you continue to use this site we will assume that you are happy with it. EVEN (and I say even because I am not at all convinced of the carefully monitored emissions) if they are safe then there is no getting away from the fact that incinerators are a waste of resources. Commingled collection for householders deals with a big range of plastic types and supermarkets (ASDA locally and Sainsburys for the Green family) take back polythene bags of all kinds for recycling. Disadvantages of corn starch polymers: The biggest disadvantage of bio plastics and corn plastic, is associated with the rate of bio degradation and recycling. Im not sure WHAT the answer is. Id like to see an Emmaus in every major town and city as they recycle donated goods first and foremost and the profits go back into Emmaus to train and rehabilitate their volunteers. 3. The following is quite a long and detailed response, and I hope it will answer all your questions. I pick up rubber bands dropped by postal delivery workers and post them in the post boxes. Here are a few ideas: 1. I would love to know what you think and if you have any further questions to put to Marks and Spencer about their packaging; I found their response very interesting and it bought up some key points for me. 100% non-toxic. However, there is no recycling market for either of these materials, meaning unless you compost them, theyll eventually end up in a landfill. Happily, this technology is developing fast, after much talk and little action in previous years. Instead, run under water outside with a hose or at least inside with garbage disposal as a backup. Created by UK-based sustainable Oohoo is essentially an edible water bottle, consisting of a flexible membrane made from a seaweed extract. Modern landfills are designed to minimize decomposition, so even biodegradable materials will take a very long time to decompose. As an analogy, its no good jumping, say, 6 feet to cross the ten foot crevasse that yawns between our current society and sustainability. http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/mar/06/rubbish-landfill-biodegradable-consumables-rubber. We have given paper a "poor" rating regarding energy, resource, and pollution from manufacturing given this research. Teresa you must learn to read properly I said Remember the choice for waste that cannot be reuse, reduce or recycled is to either landfill or burn so all your points are moot. One company trying to change this is Biome Bioplastics, which has developed a fully compostable and recyclable cup using natural materials such as potato starch, corn starch, and cellulose, the . Incineration is prefered over landfill as at least energy is produced from it. Youre so welcome, Freddy. We dont use corn starch for all our packaging at the moment it is mainly used for products in our Food To Go range such as sandwich containers. Protect your package and your planet with 100% compostable packaging foam. Flea and ant infestations can be dealt with in a far more eco-friendly way by setting down corn starch, which is difficult for them to digest. Perhaps it is time for a loose tea revolution! I would REALLY like to know how they calculate this! Traditional plastic is made from petroleum-based raw materials. Dissolve in water Green Cell Foam dissolves in water put small pieces in the sink and watch it "melt" safely down the drain; it even decomposes in seawater and freshwater! Since localities began banning styrofoam in the 1990s, companies have been switching from packing peanuts made from styrofoam to those made from cornstarch. If you know any small business owners or have friends who have online stores, offer your used packing peanuts to them. 1. The bowl from Annie Chun break down real nice. Paper and cardboard are good alternatives to bubble wrap. However, you can turn old packing peanuts into new products. Bioplastics made from natural materials such as corn starch. Are you using this packaging for all your goods? It takes a century or longer to biodegrade. @Antonio Pachowko: Hi Antonio, I understand there are emissions laws, but to be honest, many corporations have so much money that they just pay fines or they hire the best lawyers and get out of things. We develop packaging for frozen and fresh . If the material is deposited in a landfill without the proper oxygen and light, the PLA material may not decompose for decades. It is always better to reduce and reuse than to recycle. Thus, the overall production costs for biodegradable starch bags are higher by 20 to 25 percent than for plastic bags. The exact material composition will dictate how fast this happens, but the process is generally the same. The advent of cornstarch-based materials has allowed companies to choose a packaging material that is good for the environment and still suitable for their packaging need. The UK organisation that is charged with minimising waste WRAP has recognised this and acknowledged that the environmental harm caused in the UK by packaging is very small compared to the harm caused by food waste. is because we are not living in a sustainable way. Recovering that fraction of the energy out of burning waste only appears, at a casual glance, to be a plus because most never think of the much larger amount of energy (not to mention the generated pollution, resource depletion, habitat change etc.) Further to my e-mail on Wednesday, I have now heard back from our Packaging Technologist. I noticed a while ago that Coop tissues, in addition to wood pulp have a wet strength additive. Firstly, I would like to take this opportunity to update you and report that we have completed our second year audit for Packaging Reduction and are currently at 12% reduction across all of Foods. & the other tissues/paper towels etc too! Is PLA an option? The packing peanuts (you may know them as popcorn) used to protect shipped materials from damage are made of expanded polystyrene (EPS), which most of us mistakenly confuse with the Dow Chemical Company trademarked name Styrofoam. Check with your local curbside service or drop-off recycling facilities to see if they accept them. M&S have given a full explanation of the shortcomings of PLA, which is commendable. We educate and inform consumers, businesses and communities to inspire thought and facilitate earth-positive consumer decisions. Also with composting, the material is broken down and all energy pretty much lost. http://mzw.wpengine.com/2008/07/zero-waste-town-in-eastern-japan/. I would be extremely grateful if anyone could post some answers or even better email me some replies. Im going to look out for these tissues when Im next in the Co-Op and see if I can find out more. The United Nations Environment Program identified a couple of years that we are living at least 20% beyond what the planet can sustainably supply and so clearly we need to make big moves to address this, or we are in for some grief. Most of us on here are not happy with incineration except for medical waste as dioxins are produced. Therefore I agree that incineration is not the be all and end all but is it not the go between until we find better methods? Apparently most, if not all, products like this have these additives which are a form of resin. There is a lack of rigour in recycling practice due to the development stage it still occupies. Which brings us back to effective recycling. I dont agree with you at all. Corn starch box is both environmentally friendly and advantageous to your business. Everywhere you turn, there is plastic of some kind, almost every product we touch will have come into contact with plastic packaging at some time and this is because, we as joe consumer, will not tolerate our fruit being bruised or our meat going out of date in two days time rather than six days. Styrofoam is a Dow Chemical Company branded product used for coffee cups, coolers, and packaging materials. Materials made from PLA have advantages and disadvantages over synthetic polymer materials. @Adam Bell: Hello Adam, welcome to the site and good luck with your studies. We believe this is due to the customers not being able to achieve ideal composting temperatures for a sufficiently long enough period. as carbon dioxide emmissions has to be balanced against methane emissions. Is transport not calculated by volume? Paper Packaging. In response to the first question, Alex said. It is also biodegradable, compostable, and water-soluble. This, like the zero waste ideal, is perhaps a pie-in-the-sky idea. Traditional peanuts will be a bright white or even pink think natural dye vs synthetic. Designing with avariable feed stock is an engineers nightmare. A number of companies have landed on seaweed as a sustainable plastic packaging alternative, in part due to its sheer abundance and the ease of its cultivation. There are a number of PLA grades that are available for commercial customers which can be used for a number of different applications. According to a new report from the Rethink Plastic Alliance, a reusable packaging target of 50% in key sectors could drastically reduce CO2 emissions, water consumption and waste. While the peanuts wont likely do any harm, they are also unlikely to dissolve as fast as desired. Production also has higher costs than traditional packing peanuts, and in a challenging economy, many . I still concern myself with what these things end up as. Since our last e-mail, we have needed to change our composting logos to reflect the different types of composting that is available. We are extremely wasteful through total lack of care. February 27, 2023 12:02 am. The issue, however, is that with the current consumer market and the way in which the vast majority of the UK public live their lives, it is near on impossible for complete zero waste, waste disposal techniques to be anything more than pie in the sky at the moment. My vision is one where all rubbish is a resource and if we cannot responsibly dispose of a material it should not be created. Recycled EPS can be used to make everything from new EPS to picture frames and rulers. Is it more expensive than standard polystyrene packaging (normal yoghurt pots) ? Some United Parcel Service (UPS) locations, for example, accept "clean, foam packaging peanuts and bubble cushioning for reuse." By recycling your used oil, you help keep our water supply clean. The compostable plates and bowl I have been buying break down, but the top layer seems to be a plastic or complete different material as it is still present even after a few months. The Zero Waste perspective is to eliminate all single use plastic packaging (waste) and PLA does not meet the conditions for that. Just to let you know, Antonio isnt the only person here who is pro incineration and we welcome all sides of the debate as long as things are kept respectful . The materials can't be recycled - they need to go to specific composting facilities to be broken down in the right way. Add article to favourites Thats rubbish, just throw it away How many times have you heard that or said it yourself ? Reuse the packaging material. Even if you cant find a way to recycle packing peanuts or send them back to be reused for shipping purposes, there are many ways to upcycle them. Green packing peanuts are usually made from recycled materials, making them more eco-friendly than the white and pink ones. @Steve: Hi Steve, welcome to the site and thanks so much for your valuable contributions on this subject. Polystyrene is not biodegradable and cannot be recycled (technically it can only be recycled into more Styrofoam), but it is highly resistant to degrading too soon and makes a very effective packing tool. All three technology require rubbish but efw is not such chemical composition dependent. Paint the paste onto the stain, let it dry, and then wash it with your regular laundry. Its no good promoting incinerators by only looking at (what appear to be green) marketing points. @Teresa: Thanks for the link Teresa; I do feel that biodegradable clears peoples conscience to just drop things down anywhere, yes many items are biodegradable *in the right conditions*, otherwise they hang around for years causing litter. Ifpeanuts are green in tintthis indicates the material is made with 70% recycled material as well.if(typeof ez_ad_units!='undefined'){ez_ad_units.push([[250,250],'thinkingsustainably_com-large-mobile-banner-1','ezslot_7',144,'0','0'])};__ez_fad_position('div-gpt-ad-thinkingsustainably_com-large-mobile-banner-1-0'); All plant-basedpacking peanuts should dissolve with water and moisture. Cardboard without shiny coatings can also be composted in home compost. Also the turning process will scrunch up the remains of the tea bag. The packaging is important to protecting materials and companies will use the best material for the job.