What’s Stopping Bioplastic?
We depend on plastic for computers, food, health-care, and just about anything else you can think of. All of this plastic is created nearly exclusively using oil. You can’t watch a news program without hearing someone talk about about the need to invest in energy alternatives such as solar, wind, and nuclear power.
Yet, bioplastics are rarely mentioned. I think the reason politicians don’t talk about this, is because most people aren’t aware this is an issue. (72% of Americans don’t know plastic is made from oil) Scarce oil without a cheap bioplastic alternative means expensive plastic, and expensive plastic would drastically change society.
What is stopping us from switching over to bioplastic?
1. Bioplastic is more expensive than regular plastic.
2. Currently, for a product to legally be a bioplastic, it must meet high standards for biodegradability. For example, the European Union mandates that bioplastic undergo 90% degradation in 90 days(EN13432). The U.S. requires 60% degradation in 180 days(ASTM6400).
3. The belief that the components of bioplastic need to be used for feeding people, by both direct consumption and to aide in growing plants as compost.
4. Plastic is easier to recycle.
Overcoming these hurdles:
1. This hurdle will be overcome whether we like it or not. Oil based plastic will stop being cheap due to oil scarcity. At some point in the near future, the scarcity of oil will raise the price of plastic above the price of bioplastic. The price of producing bioplastic needs to be lowered through research before this happens, so that the negative effects of the transition are minimized.
2. Bioplastic production needs to be deregulated. Bioplastics could degrade 10 times slower than what the regulations require, and still be a significant improvement over regular plastic. It doesn’t make sense to have laws under the guise of being environmentally friendly, when these laws discourage research into creating long lasting plastic from renewable sources instead of nonrenewable sources.
3. We currently have the resources to feed everyone. If the starving had the ability to buy the food, the market would provide them with food. Evidence of this includes how wasteful rich countries are with food, the vast amount of relatively unused land that could be converted to farming, and the wide spread practice of growing plants for meat animals instead of feeding more people by directly growing the plants for people. The market could change to accommodate an increased demand for plants and food. In fact, since roughly 75% of malnourished people live in rural areas, an increased demand for argicultural development in poor countries probably would reduce starvation by creating jobs in these areas.
4. Having a variety of bioplastics with a wide range of degradation rates, would make directly converting old bioplastic into new bioplastic complicated. The solution is to turn all of the plastic into compost, and to use the compost to provide nutrients to new plastic producing plants. According to the EPA, less than 6 percent of plastic is recylced . Since current plastic is only recycled to a minor degree, and since bioplastic can be recycled as compost, I do not think the possible inability to directly reuse biolastic is a significant con.
Society has become dependent on plastic. And the problems hindering the development of bioplastic can be overcome. Widespread awareness of this issue will aid in overcoming it.
Kelly says:
October 20th, 2008 at 10:50 pm
Very informative. I’ll admit I’m one of the 72% that did not know plastic was made from oil. Bioplastic sounds like a positive option to go. There needs to be more awareness in these areas if we hope to save the planet and ourselves.
Angelina says:
January 4th, 2009 at 6:31 am
Would you happen to know any informative articles published about this subject?
J. Alden Page says:
January 9th, 2009 at 7:31 pm
I have to do google scholar searches just like you would proably have to
. That question is a little too broad for me to come up with anything helpful.
Doing a search for bioplastic on youtube is a very fast way of finding some groups that are doing interesting bioplastic research. I considered linking to a couple of them, but alone they aren’t that informative. If you google the research groups mentioned you can find quite a bit about what is currently going on.
Are you looking for articles about the implications of bioplastic, history, how it’s made, or other?
Irratzo says:
January 16th, 2009 at 9:59 am
Comment to “Overcoming these hurdles: Point 1. and 3.”
Alas, point 1. and 3. cannot be seen separate. They depend on each other.
Why do you reckon are the Western countries able to afford so much overproduction? It’s not like, at least Europe, hasn’t been subject to famines in the past.
It’s because we can afford fertilisers. And their production (Haber-Bosch process) consumes oil. Better crop varieties are there to outrun the pests, but the unbelievable increase of production capacity (200 to 300 %) during the 20th century is largely due to heavy dependence on oil-based fertilisers through the Haber Bosch process. Today, 50 % of the nitrogen in your body comes from the Haber-Bosch process, not like all the milennia before from the symbiosis of bacteria and legumes.
So, when the oil runs out, it’s not only the petrochemical plastics which run out of fuel, but our food supply as well. Additionally, soil erosion globally has dramatically increased due to industrial agriculture.
I’m all for bioplastics! But I reckon there has to be an globalised interdisciplinary research effort ranging from soil science, agriculture, biotechnology, materials science to economy to make point 1. and 3. independent from one another.
Irratzo says:
January 16th, 2009 at 10:10 am
Two things:
Haber-Bosch process: World annual production of ammonia through Haber Bosch process: 100 million tonnes. That accounts for 1,4 % of the total world energy consumption (the absolute number is likely to double until 2050).
Of course I was wrong. This process just needs energy, not necessarily oil, unlike petroplastics. So this isn’t really a hurdle for bioplastics.
But what about soil erosion? I don’t know much about this subject but I think it’s on a good way to become a real puzzler for coming generations.
Another thing: If you’re interested in bioplastics and how to enable them economically, I’d like to recommend to read about “Cradle to Cradle”.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cradle_to_cradle
Cheers!
J. Alden Page says:
January 26th, 2009 at 4:00 am
Hmm… I don’t know much about soil erosion. If your not doing slash and burn I wouldn’t think it would be a problem? My grandpa is a farmer. He lives in a desert and is able to use the the same soil every year.
I guess soil erosion could be a problem though. If bioplastic suddenly boomed then there would be a strong incentive to use improper techniques to get quick farmland. Is that what you mean?
Interesting article!
Angelin4 says:
February 9th, 2009 at 2:39 pm
well i’m mostly looking for articles about the complications with biopolymers, such as low temperature deflection .
J. Alden Page says:
February 10th, 2009 at 2:57 pm
NEC has been creating bioplastic that can resist high temperatures. This Link is some press releases from them about their work in overcoming that particular hurdle.
Here is another link that you might think is interesting. It’s a youtube video on how to make bioplastic at home. I want to try this sometime to make sure that it works.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LskPNBvbuqM&feature=related