What Are the Benefits of Biodegradable Plastic?
One major problem with plastic is that it often takes an extremely long time for it to break down once discarded, leading to massive problems with landfill waste and posing a danger to wildlife. Biodegradable plastics use alternate materials or specialized enzymatic or chemical reactions to break down the material quickly once exposed to the elements. This technology offers a number of advantages over traditional plastic materials.
Waste Reduction
Plastic makes up
around 13 percent of the waste stream, representing 32 million tons of waste.
While around 9 percent of that plastic goes into recycling programs, the
remainder enters landfills, where it takes up space for hundreds of years or
more. Biodegradable plastics, on the other hand, may break down over the course
of several months, depending on the materials involved and the conditions of
their disposal. While not every form of landfill-friendly biodegradable plastic
will completely break down, any reduction in the space required to dispose of
this material will ease pressures on the waste stream.
Source Reduction
Biodegradable
plastics also help conserve petroleum supplies. Traditional plastic comes from
heating and treating oil molecules until they turn into polymers, representing
about 2.7 percent of America's petroleum consumption. Bioplastics come from
natural sources, including crops like corn and switchgrass. While in some
cases, the bioplastic material mixes with traditional plastic to give products
more strength, any percentage that comes from a renewable source saves
petroleum. As these technologies mature, they offer the capability of producing
plastic packaging and items even after the world's oil has run out.0:14
Energy Savings
Biodegradable
plastics can also represent a significant energy savings. For example, the
corn-based plastic polymer PLA uses 65 percent less energy than creating a
similar polymer from raw petroleum. In addition, it generates 68 percent fewer
greenhouse gases during its manufacture, representing a significant
environmental benefit.
Source from: Sciencing
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