3 ms·
No, it's not. Despite what store pages love to tell you at every corner, PLA does not degrade by itself. It requires exposure to 60+ degrees Celsius for at leas
by alpaca128 6y ago
No, it's not. Despite what store pages love to tell you at every corner, PLA does not degrade by itself. It requires exposure to 60+ degrees Celsius for at least 6 months. Good luck building recycling plants handling this in an environmentally-friendly and economical way.
Don't throw out PLA, it's barely less problematic than other materials.
- Dma54rhs 6y agoTemperature at land fills get rather high. Not sure about 6 months, it depends where.
- labawi 6y agoI've personally seen how PLA degrades in good compost in about three weeks (can go for less if you're more active). True, it is important to go through a stage of 60+℃ for a day or so, to soften up so bacteria get in, otherwise it may indeed take 6 months to get through a solid chunk, but that is quite different from 6+ months of 60+℃. Yes, PLA can cause some issues in nature as it is acidic (lactic acid) and in quantity throws off pH balance in soil/compost, so many composters don't like to take PLA. OTOH, it is not a difficult problem to solve, and importantly, lactic acid is not inherently toxic in reasonable quantities (muscles generate it) and it shouldn't take too long for microbes to snatch it up once it is small enough. To put that in contrast, typical plastics consist of toxic components that you do not want in your system, or even in your garden. They are mostly inert while intact, but they tend to slowly decompose and often leach even while in use. Examples of compositions: ABS - acrylonitrile (toxic at low doses [1]), butadiene (Group 1 carcinogen [2]), styrene (known carcinogen [3]); PET, PETG: phtalate (Endocrine disruptors [4]) [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acrylonitrile [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butadiene [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Styrene [4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phthalate