{"id":116,"date":"2011-07-25T18:10:50","date_gmt":"2011-07-25T18:10:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/new.ensoplastics.com\/theblog\/?p=116"},"modified":"2011-08-17T19:34:45","modified_gmt":"2011-08-17T19:34:45","slug":"consumers-confused-by-terms-like-bio-based-and-renewable-revealed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ensoplastics.com\/theblog\/?p=116","title":{"rendered":"Consumers confused by ‘bio-based’ & ‘renewable’"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Very recently there was an article posted on www.PlasticsNews.com<\/span><\/a> titled\u00a0 Expert: Consumers confused by terms like ‘bio-based’ and ‘renewable’ .<\/em><\/span><\/a> On behalf of ENSO our president Danny Clark would like to give a response to the article.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Compostable or Biodegradable?<\/span><\/h2>\n


\n<\/span><\/p>\n

Mr. Mojo addresses some very crucial points for companies labeling their product or packaging as compostable or biodegradable .Technology companies which provide compostable or biodegradable solutions, brand owners, manufactures, and industry organizations should make every effort to better clarify claims being made.\u00a0 One major point that Mr. Mojo did not address is that these businesses and industry organizations should be providing to the public any test data supporting such claims.<\/p>\n

The topic of greenwashing<\/span><\/a> is currently a significant issue for all industries and companies trying to “go green”<\/span><\/a> or provide some kind of improvement to their products and packaging.\u00a0 Unfortunately we do not have clear cut protocols or processes for this.\u00a0 Most of us are working towards new standards, processes and protocols that will better clarify what certain claims mean.<\/p>\n

It is important to note for the readers that Mr. Mojo, is the Executive Director of BPI (<\/span>Biodegradable Products Institute<\/span><\/a>)<\/span>, a non-profit industry organization for compostable plastics, which certifies many products labeled compostable and as passing the ASTM D6400.\u00a0 The ASTM D6400 is a pass\/fail testing protocol specifically designed to validate that such materials will appropriately compost in an industrial composting environment.\u00a0 The ASTM D 6400<\/span><\/a> is designed to ensure that the compostable plastics entering into industrial composting facility will not negatively impact the business aspect of that facility; breaks down within 180 days, no toxic residue, etc.<\/strong><\/p>\n


\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Great Debate<\/span><\/h2>\n


\n<\/span><\/p>\n

There is currently a great debate about claims of compostable and biodegradable plastics, many were addressed by Mr. Mojo in the article.\u00a0 One that didn’t get touched on is the customary disposal methods (or end-of-life options) of products.\u00a0 Mr. Mojo may argue that compostable plastics are “more greener” or “better”<\/span> for the environment but if that product is labeled as compostable but the consumer has no way to dispose of it in an industrial composting facility, or worst yet, the composting facilities won’t accept it due to contamination or wanting to keep its organic certification, what then happens to the benefit of that “compostable” material?\u00a0 The issue of customary disposal methods is currently a big area of greenwashing in the market today.<\/p>\n

Another example is found in the Aug, 2010 issue of Biocycle Magazine where a published study initiated by the Environmental Services Department and performed at the Miramar Greenery Composting Facility evaluated 105 different compostable products.\u00a0 The majority of the products selected met ASTM standards (either ASTM D6400 or D6868) and many had Mr. Mojo’s industry’s organization (BPI) certification.\u00a0 All of the products tested were purchased in the market.\u00a0 To read the full article click: \u00a0https:\/\/ensoplastics.com\/download\/CompostableReport.pdf<\/span><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

More than half of the 105 products did not biodegrade greater then 25 percent.\u00a0 Quote: “None of the compostable cutlery<\/span><\/a> showed any real sign of degradation”.\u00a0 The test concluded that there was no conslusive evidence from this study to suggest that all certified products will fully degrade.\u00a0 In fact, 15 items that were both ASTM and BPI certified (Mr. Mojo’s industry organization) showed almost no effects of biodegradation at all”.\u00a0 The result of this study led to a decision to hold off accepting any type of compostable products.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

My question would be how could products that were certified as compostable by Mr. Mojo and BPI, not actually biodegrade or compost when tested in a real world environment?<\/span><\/p>\n


\n<\/span><\/p>\n

Shouldn’t test results be public?<\/span><\/h2>\n


\n<\/span><\/p>\n

This leads me to my original point of companies providing test data to the public.\u00a0 Currently, both the FTC and CA Legislation requires companies making claims such as compostable or biodegradable to provide data within 90 days.\u00a0 I personally have been asking for such data for over two years now without seeing a single test report from Mr. Mojo (BPI) or the companies claiming compostability.\u00a0 What I do experience, is the companies selling these BPI certified products directly to Mr. Mojo and BPI for their test data, however BPI continually informing me that the data is confidential.<\/p>\n

To date, I have not seen an ASTM D6400 test result from BPI on any product they have certified as compostable, and given the results of the ESD study it brings up a number of questions.\u00a0 The top question being, how much is Mr. Mojo contributing to the greenwashing issue we have in the market?\u00a0 ENSO Bottles, provides our test data right on our website for the whole world to see – we do not hide our data and we welcome anyone to test our products, as BPI<\/span><\/a> has done and validated that bottles with the ENSO biodegradable blend do actually biodegrade (as per your NSF report) .<\/strong><\/p>\n

Our industries need to provide more accurate information and education to the public.\u00a0 We don\u2019t have to agree on approach or technologies but we must provide accurate information and education.\u00a0 Consumers, businesses and legislators need to be properly educated and then given correct information.\u00a0 This also includes the work many of us in this group participate in regarding ASTM standards.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Danny Clark<\/p>\n

President<\/p>\n

ENSO Plastics<\/p>\n


\n<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Very recently there was an article posted on www.PlasticsNews.com titled\u00a0 Expert: Consumers confused by terms like ‘bio-based’ and ‘renewable’ . On behalf of ENSO our president Danny Clark would like to give a response to the article.   Compostable or Biodegradable? Mr. Mojo addresses some very crucial points for companies labeling their product or packaging […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[262,259,260,244,77,249,248,81,256,261,243,251,263,25,78,247,193,12,31,253,252,266,255,250,257,258,1465,254,245,265,264],"class_list":["post-116","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-are-compostable-products-really-biodegradable","tag-astm-d6400","tag-astm-d6868","tag-biobased","tag-biodegradable","tag-biodegradable-proudcts-institute","tag-bpi","tag-compostable","tag-compostable-cutlery","tag-compostable-products","tag-consumers-confused-by-terms-like-bio-based-and-renewable","tag-danny-clark","tag-do-compostable-products-biodegradabe","tag-earth-friendly-products","tag-enso","tag-enso-biodegradabe-recyclable-plastic","tag-enso-biodegradable-plastic","tag-enso-bottles","tag-enso-brand","tag-greenwashing","tag-industrial-compost","tag-miramar-greenery-composting-facility","tag-more-greener","tag-mr-mojo","tag-pla-corn-plastics","tag-pla-corn-utensils","tag-plastic-news","tag-proper-labeling","tag-renewable","tag-what-is-biodegradable","tag-what-is-compostable"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ensoplastics.com\/theblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ensoplastics.com\/theblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ensoplastics.com\/theblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ensoplastics.com\/theblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ensoplastics.com\/theblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=116"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/ensoplastics.com\/theblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":261,"href":"https:\/\/ensoplastics.com\/theblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116\/revisions\/261"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ensoplastics.com\/theblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=116"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ensoplastics.com\/theblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=116"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ensoplastics.com\/theblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=116"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}