{"id":644,"date":"2012-01-10T04:25:00","date_gmt":"2012-01-10T04:25:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/new.ensoplastics.com\/theblog\/?p=644"},"modified":"2012-01-10T16:52:35","modified_gmt":"2012-01-10T16:52:35","slug":"its-a-polymergency-and-i-want-to-talk-trash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ensoplastics.com\/theblog\/?p=644","title":{"rendered":"It\u2019s a Polymergency and I Want to Talk Trash\u2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

Let\u2019s face it; nobody knows what to do about it.\u00a0 Seattle just banned the bags, there are entire towns banning the bottles, and California has banned any decision making process all together.\u00a0 \u00a0If you don\u2019t know about it or if you\u2019re just blatantly unaware, there is a subject that\u2019s coming to a movie theatre near you \u2013 literally.\u00a0 Films such as \u201cBag It<\/a>\u201d and \u201cAddicted to Plastic<\/a>\u201d are just a couple of eye opening documentaries that are meant to be wake-up calls to the general public to stop and take notice.\u00a0 I remember seeing Food Inc. <\/a>\u00a0for the first time; it\u2019s a snap back to reality.\u00a0 This particular wake-up call is screaming \u2013 PLASTIC!\u00a0<\/a> And it all correlates with each other, feedstock, energy, governments, the environment, industry power-players, and the ability to make wise(r) choices.\u00a0 We have a polymergency!\u00a0 You may not see it out your front door, but if you care to look out the proverbial back door, you will find that we\u2019re swimming in plastics. \u00a0200 billion pounds of it is being produced every year and growing at a ferocious rate, most all of it, despite your own good intentions, is heading for a landfill\u2026and it\u2019s not going away.<\/p>\n

There are plenty of intertwined storylines, but it boils down to three choices and what\u2019s right \u2013 right now.\u00a0 First, you have your PLA\u2019s (polylactic acid), made from corn starch.\u00a0 This is the choice to compost, Industrial Compost, not your backyard contraption. \u00a0It\u2019s sourced from feedstock with GMOs to harvest a specific type of crop \u2013 red flags should already be flying.\u00a0 If you\u2019re not sure where I\u2019m heading here, then I recommend \u201cFood, Inc.\u201d an enlightening description about genetic engineering and our food supply.\u00a0 Nevertheless, the PLA technology lacks the performance characteristics of tradition plastics (low melting point and poor barriers) and, by definition and despite the claims, it is not actually biodegradable. Ideally, and a stretch for sure, this type of plastic ends up in an industrial composting facility.\u00a0 If the compost facility actually accepts it (although not likely), it is lovingly processed into the \u201corganic\u201d soil under a very controlled environment.\u00a0 Otherwise, it\u2019s considered a contaminant in the recycling stream and it\u2019s undoubtedly going to a landfill.<\/p>\n

Then there are the oxo-degradables, the choice to degrade.\u00a0 Okay, let\u2019s get this out of the way, \u201cBiodegradability\u201d means that the organic material is capable of being broken down into innocuous products by the action of living things (as microorganisms).\u00a0 But, because everything eventually decays over time (albeit a ridiculous amount of time for plastic); this term is being unreasonably used when describing oxo-degradables as oxo-\u201cbio\u201ddegradables.\u00a0 Oxo-degradables do just that, degrade.\u00a0 The technology certainly makes it look like its biodegrading.\u00a0 Have you ever picked-up an old brittle piece of plastic that just breaks apart in your hand?\u00a0 Basically, there are metal-ions interspersed along the polymer chain.\u00a0 When an oxo-degradable plastic is exposed to UV light and oxygen (which occurs immediately), like any metal, the ions deteriorate.\u00a0 The plastic becomes brittle and it breaks apart into tiny pieces of itself and contaminating, not biodegrading, into the soil and food chain.\u00a0 Obviously, there are shelf-life issues with oxo\u2019s and, like PLA\u2019s, they\u2019re not welcome in the recycling stream.\u00a0 They\u2019re heading for a landfill, and since this technology requires oxygen to degrade, and most landfills are an anaerobic (without oxygen), the plastic won\u2019t degrade, let alone \u201cbiodegrade.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now a different technology has emerged, a technology which proves actual accelerated biodegradation without affecting the properties of traditional plastic.\u00a0 This is the ENSO technology<\/a> that\u2019s causing such misunderstanding for the California legislatures, and curiously enough, for the time being, their answer is to only allow you to be informed if the product is compostable (PLA).\u00a0 Considering the fact that the chances of your plastic trash being introduced into a composting facility, if you are actually able to find one in your area, are slim to none, this this is a peculiar line for California to take a stance on. The ENSO technology is an FDA approved and scientifically proven additive that maintains all the phenomenal characteristic of traditional plastic.\u00a0 The technology works with the recycling stream and the accelerated biodegradation occurs when the plastic enters a highly microbial aerobic\/anaerobic environment (landfills).\u00a0 In comparison studies, when weighing factors such as sourcing, shelf-life, and end-of-life factors, the ENSO technology for biodegradation is simply a better choice.<\/p>\n

Our scientific technology is moving towards better answers, but this is going to take time. Yet, with 100 million tons of plastic being dropped on our doorstep every year, we need to embrace proven newcomers to the scene.\u00a0 The answer isn\u2019t to take away the bag or the bottle; it\u2019s to choose a better bag or bottle. And it\u2019s certainly not time to cripple advancements with bureaucratic finagling.\u00a0 Also, before we get too wrapped-up in the \u201cgreen washing\u201d of new technologies coming to market, we should start asking tougher questions.\u00a0 Just because something is labeled with a \u201cfeel-good\u201d name and has \u201cfeel-good\u201d pictures accompanying the marketing campaigns, does not mean it\u2019s better for our environment.\u00a0 \u00a0We are burying ourselves in plastic trash and separating the wheat from the chaff, or the marketing from the innovation, is going to be a critical step in improving our methods and preventing us from further trashing our planet.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Let\u2019s face it; nobody knows what to do about it.\u00a0 Seattle just banned the bags, there are entire towns banning the bottles, and California has banned any decision making process all together.\u00a0 \u00a0If you don\u2019t know about it or if you\u2019re just blatantly unaware, there is a subject that\u2019s coming to a movie theatre near […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[737,740],"tags":[20,517,194,342,310,27,157,418,63],"class_list":["post-644","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-biodegradation-2","category-product-innovation","tag-banning-plastic","tag-biodegradable-additives","tag-biodegradable-plastic","tag-biodegradable-plastics","tag-earth-friendly-plastics","tag-eco-friendly","tag-enso-biodegradable-and-recyclable-plastic","tag-plastic-bags","tag-plastic-waste"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ensoplastics.com\/theblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/644","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\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ensoplastics.com\/theblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=644"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/ensoplastics.com\/theblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/644\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":696,"href":"https:\/\/ensoplastics.com\/theblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/644\/revisions\/696"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ensoplastics.com\/theblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=644"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ensoplastics.com\/theblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=644"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ensoplastics.com\/theblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=644"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}