Milton group leads national tests for decomposition
by Jonathan Copsey
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November 21, 2011
MILTON, Ga. – A Milton group is helping lead the way to change how plastics affect the environment.
Although soda and milk bottles are collected and recycled at increasing rates, the majority of plastics simply cannot be recycled.
Reasons include contamination, collection and logistical costs.
About 13 million tons of plastic containers and packaging ended up in landfills in 2008, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.
The Milton-based Plastics Environmental Council’s effort to develop a landfill biodegradation specification standard is intended to address this issue. The mere quantity, as well as the nature of plastics – that they don’t decompose or break down easily in nature – spurred the PEC and the industry to act.
“In recent years, many of my clients have become increasingly involved in sustainability,” Dr. Charles Lancelot said.
Lancelot, executive director of the PEC, runs the plastics industry consulting firm in Milton, drawing from his 45 years of experience.
“I was asked to find out how plastics can biodegrade,” he said.
From those conversations came the PEC about one year ago.
The PEC, working with Georgia Tech and North Carolina State universities, as well as many national chemical companies, aims to create standards for how the plastics we use – and discard – every day degrade when put into landfills.
The durability of plastic can be counteracted and the process of degrading sped up through the inclusion of additives to the plastic that encourage microbes in the landfills to feed on the plastic, breaking it down.
This can drastically cut the time it takes to decompose.
“While we already know from various independent laboratory tests that our member companies’ additives are expected to be effective at speeding up the biodegradation of petroleum and natural gas-derived plastics in landfills, this will be the first-of-its-kind study to verify biodegradation rates of plastic waste treated with such additives under both laboratory and field conditions,” said former Florida Sen. Robert McKnight, PEC Board chairman. “The new standard will allow us to develop a simple certification seal that will inspire confidence in these additives from businesses, consumers and regulators.”
While most plastics from hydrocarbons are recyclable, they are not biodegradable without the addition of chemical additives and remain in landfills virtually forever. Chemical additives, many of which are approved for use by the Food and Drug Administration, are added to the plastic resins during the manufacturing process. They do not alter the final product’s performance and are undetectable by the end user, and products containing them can be processed through current recycling methods.
“It’s not an alternative to recycling,” Lancelot said, “but if it’s going to a landfill, at least it can degrade.”
For more information about PEC, visit www.PEC-US.org.