Plastic, Not So Fantastic: Part 1!
Plastic….. Let’s Sort it Out
The environmental impact of plastic has become a growing concern worldwide and here in Aotearoa. To uphold the belief that Kiwi’s are clean, green and environmentally conscious we must show respect for our land and ensure that the future production, consumption and disposal of plastics follow sustainability guidelines. One of the biggest barriers we currently face as a community is the lack of public knowledge around the different kinds of plastic. This blog post is dedicated to informing our readers about the different ways we can dispose of our plastic. We think this is a good place to start when tackling our plastic problem. We will be creating another post that breaks down how to identify different plastics and what all the numbers and letters actually mean, so keep an eye out for Part 2!
For now, let’s tackle some terms. Biodegradability, compostability and oxo-degradability are words that are often used interchangeably but are not synonymous. Confusion regarding common plastics and the terminology (especially when it concerns the disposal of plastic products) can have dire consequences for our environment and the health of our people.
So how severe is the plastic problem we face? At the moment we are looking at 368 million tonnes of virgin plastic being produced every year with little sign of slowing down. Recent projections have estimated that by 2040 this number will have doubled. Only 9% of the plastics we produce have been recycled with 79% of all plastic accumulating in our landfills or leaching into the environment. Plastic does not just end up in our oceans, but in the air we breathe, the soil we use to grow our food, the freshwater and even our precious tamariki. It is everywhere and in various forms. The negative climate impacts of plastic are evident at all stages of plastic production, not just when it comes to the end of a product’s lifecycle. Plastic pollution dangerously impacts the human body and our environment. Enabling our community to understand how to tackle this issue is a top priority for Res.Awesome.
Plastics are basically made of polymers of various lengths. Depending on the type of plastic the polymers mostly consist of carbon and hydrogen; sometimes including oxygen, chlorine, fluorine, nitrogen, silicon, phosphorus or sulfur. These chains are chemically bonded together in various ways. The process of plastic breakdown includes either physical fragmentation into smaller and smaller pieces - leading to microplastics - or breaking the chemical bonds between chains and/or breaking the polymer chains into pieces. It is important to note that polymers also occur naturally as well as synthetically.
Some of the issues we face are around the nature of the synthetic polymers created by humans and what happens when they break down at a molecular level. The processing techniques used during plastic manufacture often introduce toxic substances to these polymers, which inevitably end up leaching into our ecosystems. Whatever ends up in our ecosystem of course ends up in our waterways, oceans, marine life, food sources and the air we breathe. When we dispose of plastic it is easy for us to be duped into thinking that the plastic is no longer impacting our physical space just because we can’t see it anymore. Unfortunately, science has shown that these plastic particles are everywhere, even making their way into our bodies at terrifying rates.
“Microplastics have polluted the entire planet, from Arctic snow and Alpine soils to the deepest oceans. People are also known to consume them via food and water, and to breathe them in, but the potential impact on human health is not yet known.”
It is important to understand the different kinds of plastic, so we can better discern how our choices impact our environment and our future generations.
Biodegradable
Biodegradable plastics are a category of plastics that are able to be broken down through the work of living organisms. Enzyme producing microbes use plastic as a source of energy and essentially feed off the material. This process causes the plastic to be broken down into carbon dioxide, methane, water and microbial waste. Biodegradation relies on the action of living cells to break down the polymers of the plastic. How long this process takes is highly variable and dependant on the environment. It is important for this process to not be confused with simple degradation; which relies on sunlight, heat, humidity and time to weather and fragment the plastic.
Almost every product will degrade if given enough time and time is a key variable in the plastic breakdown process. Just because a product is technically biodegradable does not automatically mean it is good for the environment. Even this category of plastic could take hundreds of years to fully break down. If biodegradable products break down and go on to leach harmful toxins and disruptive waste into our environment, we should not think of these products as eco-friendly. For these reasons, many people are calling for a standard of biodegradability to be introduced in Aotearoa. At the moment, New Zealand lacks comprehensive standards to classify different kinds of biodegradable or compostable plastics which has prompted some independent manufacturers to seek certification using international standards. This will enable products to be labelled appropriately and make it easier for consumers to make informed choices when choosing products.
Oxo-Degradable
Oxo-degradable plastics are a group of plastics such as polyethylene and polypropylene that use additive technologies to imitate biodegradable plastics. Pro-oxidant bio-additives (such as starch) or metal salts are added to traditional plastic to form an oxo-degradable plastic. These additives are intended to speed up the degradation of plastic without the assistance of microbes. Oxo-degradable plastics fragment into smaller and smaller pieces called micro plastics. Fragmentation is assisted by air, humidity and sunlight which cause an oxidation process - hence the name oxo-degradable plastics. They don’t break down at the molecular or polymer level like biodegradable and compostable plastics. The resulting microplastics are left in the environment indefinitely unless they eventually (who knows when!) fully break down. Oxo-degradable plastics are not considered good for our environment due to their hardy nature and the amount of time they remain in our ecosystems. A huge concern surrounding this material is the microplastic pollution created which ends up leaching into our marine environment.
Due to lack of enforcement regarding the labelling of our plastics, oxo-degradable products are often marketed as biodegradable or compostable. For these plastics to be considered biodegradable they must pass robust international standards for biodegradability. Due to the hardy nature of oxo-degradable plastics, this simplified marketing strategy is untrue and therefore misleading. The evidence clearly shows that this kind of plastic is not suitable for composting of any kind as the anaerobic digestion of these substances does not meet international standards. Restrictions around this category of plastic are being considered in Europe. While the negative impacts of this substance are clear, the sheer scale of the damage caused to our people and our environment is largely unknown.
In New Zealand, two oxo-degradable bag manufacturers have been charged under the Fair Trading Act for misleading claims regarding the environmental benefits of these products. As these kinds of plastics continue to increase in production and take up space in our world, it is imperative that there is a level of transparency around the environmental impacts of such materials. Clear labelling and truthful marketing of these products are so important if we want to avoid mass greenwashing. At Res.Awesome we believe that every consumer has the right to make informed choices by having access to accurate information about products. The current issues we are seeing in the plastic market are making this very difficult.
Compostable
Items are considered compostable when they are able to be broken down into their natural elements. Some people may be surprised to hear that certain plastics can be composted. This may conjure up a rather handy notion that we can dispose of our plastic by utilising our glorious home compost system. Unfortunately for the few plastics that are compostable, most of them just won’t break down in a typical backyard pile of compost. This is because compostable plastics need constant exposure to a high heat situation, which is not realistic in a domestic setting. Certified industrial compost sites reach very high temperatures and are capable of biodegrading compostable plastics and degrading both bioplastics and plastics made from fossil fuels.
There are many different kinds of plastics so it may be easier to think of compostable plastics as a subcategory of biodegradable plastics. All compostable plastics are biodegradable, as the process of composting causes biodegradation - but that does not make all biodegradable plastics compostable. To give this issue some New Zealand context, there are industrial composting facilities around the country that collect organic waste and even a system in Christchurch that includes a kerbside collection service. There are however rules around what can and cannot be included in your compost. Packaging is very rarely accepted in these schemes due to a range of standards that need to be maintained to keep compost sites flourishing. A couple of these standards include assessing the starting material of the plastic to ensure no harmful chemicals were involved in the production and ensuring the living organisms that are vital to the composting process are not being jeopardised by harmful levels of toxicity.
Compostable service ware or single-use products are portrayed as being better for the environment. Many of us would like to believe that our soil is an appropriate and convenient waste disposal system for man-made products. Although compostable products may appear to be effectively breaking down the chemicals leaching into our soil are not always safe. Thousands of synthetic chemicals are legally permitted to be added to food-grade packaging; many of which are known to be unsafe. The risks involved in our single-use packaging, even our compostable products, have been acknowledged by a growing portion of the scientific community. Our increasing demand for compostable packaging opens the door to yet another avenue for harmful chemicals and toxic substances to be leached into our ecosystems. Our food chain has become dangerously compromised and as the material economy becomes more circular it is important for our communities to engage in science-backed discussions about the potential dangers of each ingredient used in every piece of packaging. This is even more important when we increasingly use terms such as ‘compostable’. Words like this are often associated with being good for our environment and by default, people may assume all products with this label are safe and harmless.
Bioplastics
Bioplastic is a word used to describe a vast range of plastics; both fossil fuel derived and biologically based plastic. These plastics can either be biodegradable or non-biodegradable. Despite the healthful inference of the term ‘bio’, bioplastics do not technically have to be made from non-toxic materials. With today’s standards these sorts of plastic generally still have a negative impact on our environment, as this umbrella term really does wrap around a large group of plastics. The term bioplastic essentially means that some portion of the ingredients used in the manufacturing process has been derived from biological compounds, this could be of microbial or plant origin.
The broad nature of the term ‘bioplastic’ is rather ambiguous and in some cases could be seen as a significant factor in the rise of greenwashing tactics. Depending on the chemical make-up of the non-biodegradable bioplastic in question, they often act no differently to conventional old plastic and the negative effects can be pretty much the same too. It is important to remember that the source of each plastic does not determine whether it is biodegradable or not.
Bio-based alternatives are being researched and developed both here in New Zealand and internationally. This body of research is giving us some hope for the future of plastic production. Check out the link to some handy info here. Although research in this field is increasing, the impacts of various bioplastics remain to be seen.
When it comes to assessing if bio-based plastics are better than fossil-based plastic there is no quick answer. When analysing different kinds of plastic we must look at the entire lifecycle of each product. There is so much to be considered, contrasted and compared in our pursuit of plastic. Here are some key questions we must ask:
What materials are being used and how much?
How does the product last during use?
How much energy is needed for manufacture and adequate disposal?
What pollutants, including greenhouse gases, are released during the lifecycle of the product?
How much land is required to create raw materials for the product? How does this impact our food resources?
How does the manufacture and disposal of each product impact the different communities they come into contact with?
What can we do?
Biodegradation only occurs in the right setting and this process will be slowed or at least negatively affected if the biodegradable plastic is simply littered rather than disposed of properly. Under the right circumstances, when plastic is biodegradable it means it will not persist in our environment for as long as non-biodegradable alternatives. Composting may be a way of diverting waste from landfills, but the ability to adequately deal with compostable plastics depends on the availability of facilities that are able to process this waste. As we have already mentioned, there are also questions about the climate change implications associated with the breakdown of biodegradable and compostable plastics. This is due to the gases leached from these particular biological processes. The extraction of fossil fuels to produce plastics is a large contributor to our emissions too. Both the extraction and transport of plastic involves harmful leakage and fuel combustion which is not doing our natural world any favours. The energy consumed as we drill for oil or gas is something to acknowledge as part and parcel of the plastic industry. During this excavation, there is a huge disturbance to our natural world when forests, fields or seabeds are cleared for drilling and pipelines; not to mention the disruption of local iwi and sacred lands.
New Zealand needs to tackle this issue by implementing a safe and circular economy for plastics, which is something we have not yet seen. When we think of the negative effects of plastic, we may automatically think about our land and waters. But we humans are also part of our natural world, therefore the harmful impacts of plastics on our bodies is something we really need to consider. Many plastics have endocrine-disrupting chemicals or hormone mimickers in them which create health concerns at a genetic level for generations of people to come.
A good place to start is by removing the toxic additives that are present in our plastics. This is an important step if we want to prioritise the health of our communities.(We will be dedicating a future blog post to this topic, as we believe it is a really important factor in our continued fight against plastic, look out for Part 3!) Preventing these plastics from entering our ecology and bodies starts by halting the production of harmful materials. Essentially we need to have more rigorous standards when it comes to assessing our plastic at all stages. We need total transparency when it comes to product labelling and advertising, as the rise of greenwashing is impeding peoples ability to make informed choices that are better for our environment. Not only will transparency allow consumers to make smarter purchasing decisions, but it will ensure bioplastics are disposed of through the proper channels. Ultimately, better end-of-life disposal of all kinds of plastic will help us divert waste from our landfills, reduce harmful emissions contributing to climate change and better equip us to look after our remaining resources.
New Zealand currently does not have a substantial legislative framework to ensure these harmful products are not impacting our society. At the moment, we have a range of international agreements surrounding plastic use that are not working integratively. What we need is an international plastic pollution treaty that allows the entire world to work collectively at tackling this large scale issue. At the moment there is a goal to initiate treaty talks with an international negotiating committee that will be held at the next United Nations Environmental Assembly in February 2022. Currently, there are around 130 countries in support of this, sadly New Zealand is not one of them.
The team at Res.Awesome knows that if we begin by embracing a holistic approach that utilises the strength of local knowledge we can take action to save our environment. This ethos aligns with Te Ao Māori, as we recognise that earth’s resources are finite and that our whakapapa was never for sale. The management of our natural resources is fundamental to the wellbeing of people, communities and our natural environment.