December, 2009 – West Des Moines, Iowa — For Immediate Release – Hiland Premium Artesian Water, exclusively available at Kum & Go convenience stores, is now available in the ENSO biodegradable plastic bottle.
Tag Archives: biodegradable plastic bottles
RUBBISH! The Archaeology of Garbage, Book Review
The book titled Rubbish! The Archaeology of Garbage by William Rathje and Cullen Murphy was a very interesting read. Created in 1973, the archaeology of garbage was a program primarily created as an exercise in archeology for students at the University of Arizona Tucson. The most fascinating aspect of the book is the discoveries of what our garbage tells about us as a society. It was interesting the amount of detailed behavior that can be discovered by going through trash. For example, in times of product scarcity our garbage shows that we waste more of the scarce product. Another major fact Dr. Rathje’s team discovered is that our landfills are not filling up from disposable diapers which is taking up about 1% of a landfills mass.
There have been some in the PLA (corn plastics) industry who use quotes from Dr. Rathje’s book to support an argument that composting biodegradable plastics is better for the environment than landfilling them. Their argument takes some of the data out on context by looking at the hundred year old “poor” environmental designs of landfills. The printing of “RUBBISH!” was in 1991 with most data provided in the book ending in 1988. Most of the data in the book is over 20 years old. As with many things from our past we eventually discover better and more environmentally sound solutions. Yes, it is absolutely true that traditional dry-tomb landfilling is not the best solution for dealing with our garbage. As a society we have made significant improvements to the methods we use for disposing of garbage. Since the writing of the book we have implemented hundreds of recycling programs as well as the EPA requiring methane from the anaerobic biodegradation process happening in landfills to be captured and burned or used to create clean energy. The EPA in the last 5 years has also changed laws with recirculating leachate through a landfill so to accelerate biodegradation by up to 10x.
Sorting out Biodegradable Plastics
There are three main categories of degradable plastics: biodegradable plastics, compostable plastics and degradable plastics. One of the biggest contributions to the confusion surrounding the subject of degradable plastics is a combination of the lack of common definitions and the loose usage of these definitions.
The ASTM International, originally known as the American Society for Testing and Materials, is a standards organization, host to committee D20.96 on Environmentally Degradable Plastics and Biobased Products. The ASTM maintains a Standard Terminology Relating to Plastics under their designation: D 883 – 08. The following are the ASTM definitions for degradable plastics:
biodegradable plastics—a degradable plastic in which the degradation results from the action of naturally-occurring micro-organisms such as bacteria, fungi, and algae.
compostable plastic—a plastic that undergoes biological degradation during composting to yield carbon dioxide, water, inorganic compounds, and biomass at a rate consistent with other known compostable materials and leaves no visually distinguishable or toxic residues.
degradable plastic—a plastic designed to undergo a significant change in its chemical structure under specific environmental conditions resulting in a loss of some properties that may vary as measured by standard test methods appropriate to the plastic and the application in a period of time that determines its classification.
ENSO Bottles Awarded Green Education Network Seal of Approval
July, 2009 – ENSO Bottles LLC has been awarded the Green Education Network Seal of Approval because its product makes a needed contribution to the problem of non-recycled plastic, and ENSO has demonstrated a commitment to education. ENSO bottles are 100% biodegradable, decompose in about five years and add little to the cost of a bottled beverage or other product. Like traditional PET bottles, the ENSO bottles also can be recycled along with nonbiodegradable PET bottles without being separated.
Sustainable Plastics
By Max
There is a lot of concern about the growing plastic pollution problem, and rightly so. Did you know?
* Plastic bottles take hundred or thousands of years to begin biodegrading
* 150 billion plastic beverage bottles are produced each year
* 70-80% of plastic bottles are not recycled
* 100 billion plastic bottles end up in landfills, roadsides, streams or oceans
* The average American consumes 167 bottles of water a year
* Bottled water is the second most popular beverage in the United States
* A majority of containers today are made from plastic
It seems that a lot of interest is being placed on bottled water, but take a look at the shelves where you shop; almost everything is packaged in plastic. Bottled water has become an easy target; many of us think that because our tap water is safe, it must be safe everywhere else. I wish that were true, most places in the world don’t have safe drinking water. We should be focusing on the pollution caused by all plastics and insist that plastics be designed to be sustainable. Sustainable plastics regardless of what it is made from, petroleum or plants should be biodegradable and designed to meet“Cradle to Cradle,” design criteria. A cradle to cradle product is made from something, used, reused, recycled and when its useful life is over, it returns to the earth as a harmless substance.
BIODEGRADABLE PLASTIC BOTTLES CAN CREATE CLEAN ENERGY
By Del Andrus
With the domestic and world markets looking into alternative energy, it is not surprising that the use of biogas created by our landfills are emerging as an easy answer to clean energy (see bioreactor landfill). What is surprising is that this seemingly untapped resource has been available for decades, and is only now being taken serious as a mainstream source for clean energy.
With countries like England adopting a massive effort to capture and utilize methane from waste off gassing from landfills, it is another exciting development towards a green and responsible stewardship of our planet for future generations to come. Here in the US, we are looking to forge ahead in the ambitious challenge to change the way we are consuming our products and resources, and in turn how we dispose of them. There are the “old school” influences that are entrenched in “status quo”, but do not be fooled, change is here, and the scale is tipping towards a healthier way we treat our planet. We are changing mainstream things that could set a new course our children will look back and thank us for. Look at the city of San Jose, CA were this city’s vision has a goal of using 100% of the city’s electrical power from clean renewable sources.
These are exciting times where innovations like our biodegradable bottles are springing up, and alternative sources for clean power are emerging. We are excited about our involvement in this transformational process that is taking place because we can help rid a pollution problem both from a litter perspective, as well as an emission perspective. Our biodegradable plastic bottles will biodegrade to reduce plastic trash in the environment, and in the process create clean energy from the methane off gassing produced by the degrading process in a landfill. We are first and foremost an advocate of recycling; recycling should and must be the goals of everyone within the voice of our message-please choose to recycle! But with the rates of recycling as low as they have historically been in the US, we take solace in that we can still achieve a positive effect by providing clean power through our plastic PET bottle technology.
Fun Facts About PET
- The PET bottle was patented in 1973 by chemist Nathaniel Wyeth (brother of distinguished American painter Andrew Wyeth).
- The first PET bottle was recycled in 1977.
- An estimated 9,400 curbside collection programs and 10,000 drop-off programs collect PET plastic in the United States, currently.
- Approximate number of PET beverage bottles per pound:
16 oz. — 18 bottles per pound
20 oz. — 16 bottles per pound
1 liter — 12 bottles per pound
2 liter — 9 bottles per pound
3 liter — 5 bottles per pound
- Cubic yards conserved in a landfill by recycling PET beverage bottles:
4,800 recycled 16-ounce bottles saves a cubic yard
4,050 recycled 20-ounce bottles saves a cubic yard
3,240 recycled 1-liter bottles saves a cubic yard
2,430 recycled 2-liter bottles saves a cubic yard
1,350 recycled 3-liter bottles saves a cubic yard
- Since 1978, manufacturers have reduced the weight of a two-liter bottle by about 29%, from 68 grams to 48 grams.
- Recycling a ton of PET containers saves 7.4 cubic yards of landfill space.
- According to the EPA, recycling a pound of PET saves approximately 12,000 BTU’s.
- The average household generated 42 pounds of PET plastic bottles in the year 2005.
- Custom bottles (which are bottles used for products other than carbonated soft drinks) represent 62% of all PET bottles available for recycling.
- Fourteen 20 oz. PET bottles yield enough fiber for an extra large T-shirt.
- It takes 14 20 oz. PET bottles to make one square foot of carpet.
- It takes 63 20 oz. PET bottles to make a sweater.
- Fourteen 20 oz. PET bottles yield enough fiberfill for a ski jacket.
- It takes 85 20 oz. PET bottles to make enough fiberfill for a sleeping bag.
Used from NAPOR website.
What is PET plastic?
NAPCOR Reassures on PET Safety with Answers to Common Concerns
Sonoma, CA, September 25, 2007 – PET (polyethylene terephthalate) bottles have garnered a great deal of media attention recently, some of it raising questions about PET safety. According to the National Association for PET Container Resources (NAPCOR), the trade group for PET packaging, it’s time to clear up any fallacies and set the record straight: Consumers can continue to rely on the safety of PET bottles.