Greenpeace has prepared a study on plastic pollution, in which it assessed the effectiveness of large companies in the fight against single-use plastic. publishes one of the chapters
In response to growing public concern about single-use fossil fuel plastics, many companies are switching to bio-based plastics, which are often mistakenly advertised as biodegradable or compostable. Coca-Cola, Danone, Nestlé, PepsiCo are using bioplastics to replace some of the conventional plastics in beverage bottles. Many bags or disposable cutlery, plates and other takeaways are increasingly marketed as “biodegradable”. These terms can be confusing to customers, especially when generic terms such as “eco”, “bio” or “green” are used to gain a market advantage. The word “bioplastic” does not have a standardized definition and is often used to refer to a bio-derived material that is biodegradable or compostable and may include fossil fuel-based plastic.
Bioplastic is a plastic made not from fossil fuels, but from plant material: corn or sugar cane. Bio-derived plastic makes up only about 1% of the plastic available on the market. Now experts are trying to increase the amount of material from biological raw materials, but at present, most bioplastics are still partially composed of fossil fuel-based plastics. For example, the NaturALL bottle used by major beverage companies is currently 30% bio-based plastic and 70% hydrocarbon-based plastic.
Most bioplastics are produced from crops that compete with food crops. This threatens food security and leads to land use change and carbon dioxide emissions from agriculture. Globally, agricultural production is the leading cause of deforestation and habitat destruction, and crops, forestry and other land uses are responsible for a quarter of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions. A growing share of agricultural land is being used for non-food crops, mostly grown on large industrial plantations that are destroying natural habitats and crowding out small farmers. Some FMCGs, such as Unilever, have made commitments to ensure that their bioplastics come from sustainable sources, but their certification body is not independent and therefore cannot guarantee.
Many consumers may assume that all bioplastics discarded or landfilled will naturally degrade, but this is not always the case. Conventional fossil fuel-based plastics, as well as bio-based plastics, can be designed to degrade under certain conditions. This is the so-called degradable or biodegradable plastic. However, the required conditions of heat and humidity are rare in the natural environment, and when this biodegradable plastic does break down, it may not completely disappear, but break into smaller pieces, including microplastics, and enter the food chain.
The notion that these products are more natural because they are derived from plants is also false: bioplastics can use chemical additives similar to those used in fossil fuel-based plastics.
Compostable plastic is another confusing marketing term that indicates the suitability of a single-use item for composting. Compostable plastic is designed to completely degrade (as opposed to break into small pieces) under certain conditions, which are found either in industrial composting plants or, more rarely, in home composting systems. But not all municipalities have industrial composting, and many cannot recycle compostable plastic packaging. That’s why it’s likely to be buried or burned – just like ordinary single-use plastic.
Some new technologies promise biopackaging made from non-agricultural crops such as methane or seaweed, but these innovations will require transparent assessments of a range of impacts. There are packaging materials made from natural raw materials that are agricultural waste, by-products of local production or grown according to the principles of agro-ecological farming. Such materials could be part of an overall plan to move away from single-use plastic packaging, as long as they do not compete with the land for food crops or fertile soil (for example, in tropical areas, food can be wrapped in banana leaves).
The full study, The Future in the Wastebasket: How Businesses Make the Wrong Decisions on Plastic Pollution, can be read at the link below.