What can you claim with ENSO plastics?

At the retail store I am bombarded with “green” claims; earth friendly, recycled, energy efficient, recyclable, compostable, biodegradable, reuseable and renewable just to name a few. It can become overwhelming even for a person who is intimately involved with the environmental industry to sort through these claims and determine what each means. It seems that a majority of the brand owners don’t even understand themselves what the claims mean, so how can consumers be expected to understand?

To combat this confusion, ENSO is creating uniform and standard recommended claims for brands using products enhanced with ENSO technology. Creating a consistent message will alleviate much of the confusion and give consumers solid science to base their understanding upon.

Here is an example of an appropriate claim and qualifier:

ENSO accelerates the natural biodegradation of plastics

Qualifier

ENSO accelerates the natural biodegradation of plastics in biologically active landfills and anaerobic digesters as validated by independent certified laboratories using ASTM International test methods (ASTM D5526 & ASTM D5511).

Independent 3rd party testing has shown up to 24.7% biodegradation within 160 days in optimized conditions. Actual rate of biodegradation will vary dependent upon environmental conditions and the biological activity of microorganisms surrounding the plastic.

The qualifier identifies how you can support the claim and ensure that consumers understand exactly what you mean by the claim. It is an important aspect of your overall message.

The above claim and qualifier are an accurate representation of the performance you can expect when using ENSO enhanced plastics and are completely backed by third party independent test data to ensure the protection of your brand as you continue upon the path toward total sustainability!

** In the state of California it is unlawful to label any food or beverage container or plastic bag as biodegradable regardless of actual performance.

 

Part #2 – A New Look At Zero Waste

If you recall, last month we discussed ZERO Waste. The key points were that every living entity creates bi-products, which can become waste if the byproduct has no value – think of your kitchen trash.

This trash is comprised of food waste, paper, plastic and anything else you did not find value for in your home. Luckily this trash goes to your curb and is neatly taken away where you no longer have to see it. Perfect right? A few years ago I would have said “NO WAY! This trash is going to the landfill where it will sit for decades or centuries. How is that perfect?” Fortunately, today we are learning how to turn that landfilled trash into a huge value – for you and the environment!

Methane. One of the cleanest and most inexpensive sources of energy available today, straight from your neighborhood landfill! That’s right, you send out trash and get back electricity! OK it is a bit more complicated than that but fundamentally that is exactly what is happening at over 550 landfills across the US.

Here are the facts:

As material biodegrades in landfills it produces methane. Methane has over 22 times the greenhouse gas effect of CO2, however when landfill methane is used for energy production, there becomes a carbon positive effect. The NRDC states that the use of landfill gas for energy has the potential to offset up to 12006lbs of CO2 per MWh, as it offsets traditional energy production such as coal and gas.

The greenhouse gas reduction benefits of a typical 4 megawatt LFG project equate to:
• Planting over 60,000 acres of forest per year or removing the annual carbon dioxide emissions from over 45,000 cars.
• This would also offset the use of 1,000 railcars of coal or prevent the use of almost 500,000 barrels of oil.

Producing energy from landfill gas avoids the need to use non-renewable resources such as coal, oil, or natural gas to produce the same amount of energy. LFG electricity’s offsetting of fossil fuel derived energy can avoid gas end-user and power plant emissions of CO2 and pollutants.

Did you know that 14 percent of renewable electricity generation (not including hydroelectric dams) comes from operations that recapture energy from discarded waste.

Companies today have a unique opportunity to utilize packaging that retains the beneficial properties of traditional plastic, such as strength, shelf life, visual aspect and process-ability, while creating a zero waste program and potentially reducing your carbon footprint. ENSO plastics are designed for disposal in today’s biologically active landfills where they will biodegrade and convert to methane for clean and inexpensive energy production. In 2009 there was 30 million tons of plastic packaging discarded into US landfills, converting this plastic to ENSO would result in about 10 million tons of plastic being converted to clean energy and offsetting the dirty energy production of coal and gas. It would also potentially free up over 70 million cubic yards in our landfills.

Did you know?

When converted to methane, 34 ENSO bottles (19.2 gram) can light a 100W light bulb for 1 hour.

Using ENSO materials provide companies a unique opportunity to step into a future of zero waste, where all product packaging is converted to clean energy, and returned to the earth in a beneficial form. In a life cycle analysis this could prove to be a carbon negative option to traditional plastic packaging.

Waste is a byproduct that has no value. Plastic that is recycled or biodegrades in a landfill has a value (economically and environmentally) and is not waste.

ENSO PLASTICS DEVELOPS NEAR-PERFECT PLASTIC BOTTLE

As featured on Newhope 360; Full Article link http://newhope360.com/packaging/enso-plastics-develops-near-perfect-plastic-bottle

ENSO Plastics develops near-perfect plastic bottle

Wed, 2011-11-09 13:09

While many can’t imagine life without bottled water, it wasn’t that long ago—the 1960s, in fact—that plastic bottle production didn’t exist. Today, polyethylene terephthalate (PET) is the plastic of choice in the beverage industry. According to ENSO Plastics, more than 75 percent of the ubiquitous bottles (and 94 percent of all plastics) end up in landfills. “We really want to solve the world’s plastic pollution issue,” said President Danny Clark of the Mesa, Ariz.–based company. ENSO is taking advantage of this statistic with its current solution: fully biodegradable and recyclable PET plastic.

“When we started, some of the cofounders had experience with bottled water companies. I was one of them,” said Clark. “We were exposed on a regular basis to the environmental impacts that bottled water has in the environment.” Customers asked the co-founders regularly for alternatives. Continue reading →

Environment council wants eco-friendly plastic

Milton group leads national tests for decomposition

by Jonathan Copsey
write the author

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.

America Recycles Day

As the sun set on November 15th, 2011 the nation paused to reflect upon our struggles and achievements with recycling. This annual event, “America Recycles Day”  on November 15, comes at us every year as a chance to refocus our efforts with recycling and waste management. We have seen the percentage of plastics recycled when compared with the amount of plastics produced, continue to decline (less than 8% of all plastics produced today are recycled). With the concerns of global warming and effects of pollution, it is important to understand the impact we can have on our environment. At ENSO Plastics we encourage people to be mindful of what they can do to help, no matter how small or large. Recycling is just one of many ways in which we can help our environment and preserve nature.

Join us in taking a moment to think about what each of us can do to help our Earth. Whether it is supporting alternate energy resources like solar power, choosing biodegradable plastics, creating less waste, or considering hybrid vehicles – remember that recycling is the least we can do to sustain our future. With each of us doing what we can, America Recycles Day in 2012 will be a chance for the world to unite in celebration of success!

What did you do today to help?

 

Biodegradable Plastics Standard to Bust Landfill Waste

The Plastics Environmental Council (PEC) is sponsoring research to produce the first standard specification for landfill biodegradation of petroleum- and natural gas-derived plastics treated with additives to speed up anaerobic biodegradation. Such a standard would be a huge help in coping with the estimated 29 million tons of post-consumer nonrecycled plastics that end up in landfills.

Plastics are generally not biodegradable unless they’ve been specifically engineered to do so, as materials used in food service items are in many areas of California. Petroleum-derived plastics don’t usually biodegrade unless they’ve had certain chemical additives introduced to them during the manufacturing process. The additives don’t affect the plastics’ performance, and products that contain the additives can be processed with existing recycling methods.

An additive made by ENSO Plastics, a PEC member, includes organic compounds that bond hydrostatically to the material’s molecules. When the material is placed in an environment like a landfill, the additive attracts anaerobic microbes that colonize the plastic, digest the additive, and further digest the plastic by depolymerizing it. The final products are either methane or carbon dioxide and humus.

The PEC-sponsored large-scale research and development program will be conducted by the Georgia Institute of Technology and North Carolina State University and aims to produce a specification and a certification seal. The specification will reliably project landfill biodegradation rates for a given PEC-certified product in a given range of landfills over a given range of moisture conditions. The PEC expects the development of the specification to build confidence among regulators, consumers, and businesses in the effectiveness of plastics additives. It estimates the certification seal will be available in 18 months.

The study will be the first of its kind to verify biodegradation rates of plastic waste treated with additives under both laboratory and field conditions, Robert McKnight, the PEC’s chairman, said in a press release.

Professor Morton Barlaz of North Carolina State and his team will examine waste degradation rates under both field and laboratory conditions. To produce the specification, they will study petroleum- and natural gas-derived plastics that have been treated with additives from PEC member companies.

The additives are organic substances that encourage anaerobic landfill bacteria and fungi to break down the materials and convert them to biogas methane, carbon dioxide, and biogenic carbon. “Research done so far using standard test methods suggests that the treated plastics could biodegrade completely within five to ten years, depending on landfill conditions,” Lisa Detter Hoskin, a principal research scientist at the Georgia Tech Research Institute, who co-chairs the PEC’s technical advisory committee, said in a press release. A network of accredited laboratories will test products made with the biodegradable additives to ensure they degrade within a specified period.

PEC member companies include Biofilms, Bio-Tec Environmental, C-Line Products, ECM, Ecolab, Ecologic, FP International, Pure Plastics, and Wincup.

By:

Ann R. Thryft

Senior Technical Editor, Materials and Assembly

THE CALIFORNIA LAWSUIT SHOWS THE NEED FOR EDUCATION ON ALL LEVELS

By: Del Andrus

The AG of California is suing three companies that are trying to do the right thing for the environment. This brings up an issue that becomes the “big elephant in the room”.  There is confusion in the market place that needs major corrections and clearer definitions.  The market is in big need of education!  Let’s just take California as a perfect example.

When it comes to biodegradable plastics, there is an obvious need for a clearer understanding of what materials are made of, what the specific materials issues and values are; and a clearer understanding on how the material impacts the marketplace.  For instance, the article in Mercury News asking a recycler of plastic for his experience on how biodegradable plastic impacts his processing plant said, “Even in small percentages, like one-tenth of one percent, these are just catastrophic for us…They melt at different temperatures. They ruin our products.”  Anyone in the recycling industry would agree that this statement is absolutely correct.  The major error is one of clarification:  This statement is absolutely correct if you are referring to PLA material (plastics derived from corn and other starch-based crops) but is absolutely incorrect if you are referring to ENSO plastics, like this article did.  PLA is a completely different plastic, and is 100% incompatible with standard plastics: it melts at lower temperatures, it clogs up the processing equipment, and creates major issues with the physical properties of the new plastic product…the list goes on, but it’s kind of like water and oil in comparison: 1 drop of oil in your 5 gallon jug of water is going to be a problem for anyone to drink.

I contacted the recycler in this article to see what his level of understanding was and to no surprise; he stated that he was referring to his experience of the PLA material.  He further added, “I am not familiar with the ENSO material” and apologized for the confusion.  This same lack of specificity is rampant in all fields of “experts”; recyclers, composters, retail outlets, legislators and yes, even the Attorney General.

The compostable plastics industry is trying to separate themselves from the term “biodegradable plastics” because of this confusion.  Also, the fact that compostable plastic is not biodegradable until it physically breaks down in an industrial composting facility creates an issue for them in terms of their claims, so you will see this industry soon leaving the claim “biodegradable” for a more accurate description of “compostable”.  These industrial composting facilities are different from home composting in that the temperatures are much higher, causing PLA material to melt down into basic components that can then be consumed by microorganisms (microbes) that are found in waste environments.  There is also a plastic material that breaks down in oxygen and UV light called OXO-degradable.  This plastic is often referred to as a biodegradable plastic as well.

So to date, there are 3 categories of plastics that are considered “green”:  Biodegradable, compostable and Oxo-degradable.  The benefits and advantages differ quite a bit; and as illustrated, the way they are handled for end of life processes (composting vs. recycling) is likewise absolutely different.

If the world knew to distinguish biodegradable plastics into different categories, there would be far less confusion.  I would submit that innovation takes time to understand, but for clarity sake, the phrase “biodegradable plastics” should not be mistaken for PLA or any other material.  My hope is that this ordeal in California will stimulate education and scrutiny into what is being offered to the marketplace, and assist us all to clearly understand the differences of materials and their benefits.

***ENSO plastic is simply biodegradable because it is treated with an organic blend that attracts microbial activity (essentially mold or fungus) to consume the plastic just like they would consume any other typical food item in any environment where there this activity exists.  The rate of biodegradation varies depending on the environment it’s placed in.  But generally in a landfill environment, the ENSO material has been shown to biodegrade in 2-20 years depending on the microbial activity present.  All of the independent 3rd party ASTM physical properties tests illustrate that ENSO behaves like regular PET and that it is not a contaminate to the recycle stream.

Plastics Environmental Council Responds to Action Taken by California State Attorney General

MILTON, Ga.–(EON: Enhanced Online News)–The Plastics Environmental Council (PEC) today expressed their surprise that California Attorney General Kamala Harris has filed suit at this time against bottled water companies Aquamantra Inc. and Balance Water and their bottle supplier, ENSO Plastics, charging that the companies’ claims that their bottles biodegrade are false. “In so doing,” notes Sen. Robert W. McKnight, the PEC’s chairman and a former Florida state Legislator, “the Attorney General may not be aware of the timing that was agreed upon by her state Legislature together with Californians Against Waste (CAW) to allow completion of our currently ongoing R&D program to develop a biodegradability standard specification acceptable to the State Senate’s Environmental Quality Committee before enacting SB567.” The latter, broader measure was written to supersede the existing law governing plastic food and beverage containers. “We want to partner with the State of California to provide indisputable research data on this important environmental issue in the form of a bonafide ASTM or equivalent standard specification that readily communicates proven biodegradation information to the consumer,” adds Senator McKnight.

Dr. Charles J. Lancelot, the PEC’s Executive Director and a veteran of 40 years in the plastics industry, emphasized that to date, the PEC and its members companies in fact have produced a large body of laboratory-scale testing data with these additive systems. “These tests are executed under conditions that have been carefully worked out to come as closely as possible in the laboratory to conditions found in actual US landfills,” said Dr. Lancelot. He noted that it is widely recognized in the industry that biodegradation occurs in all US landfills receiving waste today at rates dependent upon moisture level, and that the refined laboratory testing conditions in place today approximate those in landfills in the wetter parts of the US, accessible to just under half of the population. “Unlike in commercial composters, which receive only between 5-8% of municipal solid waste and which operate on cycles of 180 days or less, landfill biodegradation processes, even for readily biodegradable food wastes in the wetter landfills, take several years,” said Dr. Lancelot.

“Even so, given the need to ensure that consumers receive accurate biodegradability information, and that they receive it concisely and definitively, the mass of test data available to date understandably is not considered acceptable by California legislators as the adequate, concise proof that consumers need,” notes Sen. McKnight. “So over the course of several months last spring, we presented our standard specification R&D program plans to several California lawmakers and their technical advisors, including Sen. Mark deSaulnier (D-Concord)”. Sen. deSaulnier authored the existing legislation under which the Attorney General’s current action is being taken. Sen. deSaulnier also authored the successor legislation, SB567, signed last month by Gov. Brown and scheduled to replace the existing law on January 01, 2013 with an even broader coverage of all plastic products.

The PEC’s R&D effort as presented to the California Legislature last Spring and as outlined in recent press releases is a long-term research study to produce the first-ever standard specification for the landfill biodegradation of petroleum- and natural gas-derived plastics that have been treated with additives that enhance biodegradation. The organization has partnered with Georgia Tech and North Carolina State University to execute this large-scale research and development program, headed by one of the world’s foremost experts on landfill technology, Professor Morton Barlaz of North Carolina State. The work was recently described in a news release from Georgia Tech. http://gtresearchnews.gatech.edu/biodegradation-of-plastics/. Once developed, the standard specification will reliably project the landfill biodegradation rates for a given PEC-certified product in a given range of landfills over a given range of moisture conditions with much more certainty and much more concisely for the consumer than has been possible today. Such full-scale performance criteria are not available from the best of today’s laboratory test data.

“The conversations among the PEC and the Legislature culminated in a landmark meeting in which an agreement was reached with both Senator deSaulnier and with CAW to allow the time needed for the PEC to complete the development of the biodegradation standard specification that the Legislature wanted,” Sen. McKnight said. The result of this meeting was to extend the implementation date for SB567 from January 01, 2012 to January 01, 2013. “Given this mandate to get the standard specification job done by that time, the PEC’s members made the major commitment required to push the project through,” according to Sen. McKnight.

“We would like to think that the three companies currently cited could cooperate with Attorney General Harris’s office and apply any needed qualifications to their claims based on the weight of the test evidence already in hand with the understanding that the agreed-to standard specification program is being run to completion,” said Sen. McKnight. “After all, assuming that the R&D indeed produces the needed standard specification and that it is incorporated into a further amended SB567 by January 01, 2013, the 2008 law will have been repealed thereby and the cited companies will be in compliance with the new law.”

About the Plastics Environmental Council

The PEC is a consortium of businesses, independent scientists and academics, engineers, landfill and compost operators, and environmental groups. Our goal is to assist our members in promoting the efficacy of state-of-the-market technology to facilitate the biodegradation of conventional petroleum-derived plastics in landfills and related disposal environments. For more information, please visit: http://pec-us.org/.

Contacts

Main Office
Charles J. Lancelot, Ph.D., (770) 475-8867
Cell: (678) 296-6158
Fax: (770) 753-0164
Executive Director
charles_lancelot@msn.com
or
West Coast Office
Clifford Moriyama, (916) 685-4853
Cell: (916) 215-5215
Fax: (916) 848-3626
Executive Vice President
cliff_moriyama@pec-us.org

ENSO Plastics Official Statement Regarding California Lawsuit

 

In response to the recent media coverage regarding the California Attorney General filing a lawsuit against companies doing business in California that are labeling their product packaging as “biodegradable”. At this time ENSO Plastics is unable to comment specifically about the details of any such lawsuit as we have not had the opportunity to read the lawsuit.

We do however, strongly believe in our company’s mission to rid the world of plastic pollution and have been dedicated for the past three years in bringing the most sound environmental plastic solutions to market. We stand behind our technology and the claims that our company makes in stating that standard plastics enhanced with our biodegradable additive are fully recyclable and if placed in an environment with microbes, will naturally biodegrade.

We in no way claim that our technology is the silver bullet to solving the massive plastic pollution issue our world faces. It is however a huge step in the right direction and a cost effective solution that can be implemented within todays manufacturing and end-of-life options. We do recognize that a key component in continuing to move towards the perfect solution is to address the sourcing issue of plastics and to move away from fossil fuel based polymers. Our company is one of a few companies who are diligently working towards offering renewable bio-polymers (with the same physical properties) that will address the sourcing issue which also provides a fully recyclable and naturally biodegradable end-of-life option. We also recognize that our industry is young and we have a ways to go to improving the processes to allow our industry to mature as needed. We are continually improving the testing process and working with organizations to provide more thorough data and information for the public.

Each of us have contributed in one way or another to our global plastic pollution issue and it will be up to each of us to work together to solve the very problem we created. The public is ready for change and is looking for more environmental packaging and plastic solutions. It is unfortunate that such a law could get passed that would inhibit biodegradable technologies from being labeled as such. We fully support the premise of the law to prevent “greenwashing”, but do not agree that banning or preventing the use of proper labeling of a package as a step toward solving that problem. We believe consumers should be allowed to know if their product packaging is biodegradable and if so, provided with the details of how and in what environments the packaging will biodegrade.

It is also unfortunate that this law specifically allows the use of product packaging which is compostable to be labeled as “compostable”, but for competing technologies such as ours, makes it illegal for companies to properly label their packaging as “biodegradable”. It leads one to question the true intent behind the law, especially when that law was supported and sponsored by the compostable plastics industry organization. It’s unfortunate, because there is currently very little infrastructure in place for composting facilities to accept compostable plastics. As a result, tons of compostable plastics end up in either the recycle stream or in landfill environments; neither provides the environmental benefit of the product. In our view of greenwashing, a company making a claim to an environmental benefit that cannot be achieved is the most serious form of “greenwashing”.

ENSO Plastics has all intentions of working with the California Attorney General to comply with the labeling law. We will continue forward with pursuing our mission to help solve the world’s plastic pollution issue and continue to improve the science and validity of our young industry. We would invite everyone to join with us in our efforts towards a cleaner future.

Sincerely,
Danny Clark
President
ENSO Plastics

 

PEC to Develop Biodegradation Standard for Plastic Additives

Plastics Environmental Council to Develop Biodegradation Standard for Plastics Additives and New Certification Seal

Biodegradable Additives Play Critical Role in Helping Solve the Plastics in Landfill Issue

Milton, GA, OCTOBER 24, 2011 — The Plastics Environmental Council (PEC) today announced the
sponsorship of a research study to produce the first standard specification for the landfill
biodegradation of petroleum- and natural gas-derived plastics that have been treated with additives
that enhance biodegradation. The PEC is undertaking the development of the biodegradation standard
specification to build confidence in the efficacy of plastics additives with regulators, consumers and
businesses. Plastic additives that speed up the breakdown of plastic in landfills, without affecting their
performance during use, are critically important to helping reduce the volume of plastic waste in
landfills.

Despite the fact that readily consumer-separated items such as soda and milk bottles are collected and
recycled at increasing rates, the majority of plastics simply cannot be recycled for a variety of reasons
including contamination, collection and logistics costs, second end-use limitations, etc. According to
the United States Environmental Protection Agency, 13 million tons of plastic containers and packaging
ended up in landfills in 2008. The PEC’s effort to develop a landfill biodegradation specification standard
is intended to address this issue.

To develop the standard specification, PEC has partnered with Georgia Tech and North Carolina State
University to conduct a large-scale research and development program, headed by a leading expert on
landfill technology, Professor Morton Barlaz of North Carolina State. Professor Barlaz and his team will
study waste degradation rates under both laboratory and field (landfill) conditions of petroleum- and
natural gas-derived plastics that have been treated with PEC member companies’ additives to produce
the standard specification. Once developed, the standard specification will reliably project the landfill
biodegradation rates for a given PEC-certified product in a given range of landfills over a given range of
moisture conditions with much more certainty than is possible today.

“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 gasderived
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 Senator 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 & Drug Administration (FDA), are added to the plastic resins during the
manufacturing process and do not alter the final product’s performance, are undetectable by the end
user, and products containing them can be processed through current recycling methods.

The PEC expects the landfill biodegradability certification seal to be available in approximately 18
months.

PEC member companies include Wincup, Ecologic, Bio-Tec Environmental, ECM Biofilms, ENSO Plastics,
Pure Plastics, C-Line Products, Inc., Ecolab, and FP International.

About the Plastics Environmental Council
The PEC is a consortium of businesses, independent scientists and academics, engineers, landfill and compost
operators, and environmental groups. Our goal is to assist our members in promoting the efficacy of state-of-themarket
technology to facilitate the biodegradation of conventional petroleum-derived plastics in landfills and
related disposal environments. For more information, please visit: http://pec-us.org/.