Not quite plastic?

Bioplastics

So while on holidays (we promise this is the last time we will mention our recent trip to Cairns) we tried a 'Flying Fox' icey-pole. Now the fine print in the photo below might be hard to read but apparently the packaging is not plastic. It's "wrapped in a cellulose film made from wood pulp which degrades into a non-toxic biomass".

We're confused

According to the Biodegradable Products Institute a biodegradable material is: "where under the right conditions the microbes in the environment can break down the material and use it as a food source". Which means that bioplastics may or may not be biodegradable, and the conditions under which bioplastics may biodegrade vary widely.

Unfortunately biobased and biodegradability are not the same. Just because a material is based on an “renewable resource” does not mean that it is “biodegradable” and / or  “compostable”. This type of bioplastic (where the carbon is derived from renewable feedstocks) can be made from corn, sugar cane, wheat fibre or in the case of our icy-pole 'wood pulp'.

While some biobased products can biodegrade in municipal or commercial composting facilities, home composting, and aquatic environments, others will only biodegrade in very specific environments, and others will not biodegrade at all.

Pro's

• A smaller energy footprint and a less polluted ecosystem
• They can be made from a wide variety of renewable resources

Con's

• Firstly, and currently the BIGGEST challenge - it can be very difficult to figure out which bioplastics are biodegradable and/or compostable. This means that many bioplastics do not get discarded correctly and because so many municipalities don’t even have the facilities to sort, compost, or recycle bioplastics everything ends up in a landfill anyway (where the bioplastic may or may not degrade).
• Because not all bioplastics actually degrade (in a meaningful time span) some will remain intact for decades (especially if they are not discarded properly).
• There is a need to develop composting programs and infrastructure, and to manage concerns about the contamination of recycling systems.
• In landfill sites some new bioplastics can degrade without oxygen, where they release methane.
• The methods used to grow the renewable feedstock may have a large ecological footprint - and can displace food crops.

Back to the Icey-pole

We did a little more research and the packaging on our icey-pole was fully biodegradable, so feel free to use the home compost heap for this one!

Questions

Are you confused too?

Are the cons worth it? Or should we refocus the effort on using less plastic, rather than the same amount (or more) plastic but 'guilt free' because it is somehow natural and we think it will degrade so therefore is not contributing to yet more plastic waste?