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Sounds great to me. Why not manufacture plastics designed to degrade at increased rates in the presence of those enzymes? If turning plastics into compostables
by FrameworkFred 5y ago
Sounds great to me. Why not manufacture plastics designed to degrade at increased rates in the presence of those enzymes? If turning plastics into compostables was easier, it might keep them out of the oceans.
- mimon 5y agoThey already manufacture a variety of biodegradable plastics. They are not more widely used because they have some combination of undesirable properties compared to common plastics (expensive, brittle, cannot be exposed to sunlight, moisture, etc.)
- batman-farts 5y agoPreprocessing for recycling is a big concern too. When I still worked at the farmers market in San Francisco, I overheard one of the small-time sellers telling the staff that she couldn’t take the compostable green Bio-Bags to Marin, only SF and Alameda County — as Marin’s waste disposal facilities apparently weren’t equipped to shred them before composting. The dense compostable plastic cutlery must demand even more processing, and/or higher heat in the compost pile. Recology’s compost piles outside of Dixon are absolutely massive, mid-size hills unto themselves. They must get pretty hot in the middle.