Photodegradable, disintegrating, and oxidatively biodegradable plastics actually don't decompose and are not compostable. In the 1860s, after the Civil War, the US economy boomed, driven by manufacturing. With the westward expansion reaching its peak, American pool became popular. However, at the time, pool balls were made of ivory, which was difficult to obtain and expensive, leading to increased elephant poaching in African colonies. Seeking an alternative to ivory, American inventor John Wesley Hyatt combined cellulose nitrate and camphor to create a compound called celluloid, the world's first artificial plastic. This invention was not only groundbreaking, but also a key component of America's Second Industrial Revolution. Celluloid was later refined into petroleum-based plastics. Due to its low price and high plasticity, it was widely used in all aspects of human life, rapidly changing consumer habits and providing convenient, hygienic, and affordable products. However, with the unrestrained and massive consumption of single-use plastics, which take hundreds of years to decompose in the natural environment, countries around the world have begun to pay attention to the serious consequences of plastic waste in recent years. The Century-Long Solitude of Plastics: Over 10 Billion Tons of Plastic Produced Globally Each Year, 90% Become Waste After a Single Use. According to UN statistics, global plastic consumption has been increasing year by year, approaching 10 billion tons. Of this, less than 10% is recycled and reused; the rest becomes waste, either incinerated or placed in landfills, escaping into the ocean and other environments, breaking down into microplastics, and entering the food chain and water cycle. Reducing plastic consumption has become a common global challenge. Besides increasing recycling rates, source reduction is the fundamental solution to the plastic waste problem. However, for many years, human lifestyles have been inseparable from plastics. According to the Environmental Protection Administration, the average annual plastic consumption per person in Taiwan is as high as 122 kilograms, and it is increasing year by year. We use plastic tableware when dining out, take plastic bags when shopping, and use plastic packaging materials in logistics, etc. To reduce plastic waste at its source, the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) announced the "Restrictions on the Use and Implementation of Single-Use Plastic Straws" in July this year, hoping to gradually change consumer habits through legislation. When the regulations were being drafted, environmental groups repeatedly argued that open alternatives to single-use plastic straws should not be included in "biodegradable plastics" (Biobiodegradable plastics), because Taiwan currently lacks a comprehensive biodegradable plastic recycling system and industrial composting facilities for end-of-life treatment. Despite being called biodegradable plastics, they ultimately end up mixed with general waste and sent to incinerators or landfills. However, after comprehensively assessing current industry technologies and alternatives, the EPA still allows the use of biodegradable plastic straws. The main reason is the limited supply and high cost of paper straws, raising concerns that the new law might have a significant impact and cause social backlash. The EPA also stated that technology is rapidly evolving, and it will continue to monitor the latest technologies and further adjust the regulations. Plastic waste has become a heavy burden on the environment, with many coastlines littered with garbage. From an international perspective, the decline of traditional plastics is accelerating. Xiao Yaogui, general manager of the Plastics Center, pointed out that traditional plastics are almost 100% derived from oil and face two problems. "The first is the source. Oil may soon be used up by humans. Although the United States has extracted shale gas, it cannot be used as a raw material for plastics. Therefore, the oil disaster is still counting down." Xiao Yaogui pointed out that the second more serious problem is "decomposition" because traditional plastics are too cheap and their widespread use has led to environmental impacts. The United Nations Conference has promised to significantly reduce disposable plastic products by 2030. "This is a crisis for the plastics industry as well as a new opportunity. Now all countries are vigorously promoting it. Testing centers in global markets such as the European Union and China are all congested. It can be seen that the entire industry is surging, and all walks of life are urgently in need of better alternative materials." He said that biodegradable plastics are an alternative material. In fact, biodegradable plastics were developed in DuPont laboratories as early as 1932. However, due to their higher cost compared to petroleum-based plastics, they were not taken seriously by the industry. Only in recent years, when plastic waste became a global problem, have more resources been invested in the research and development and application of biodegradable plastics. However, whether the hundreds of biodegradable plastics currently on the market can truly solve the plastic waste problem remains to be verified. The betrayal of the Prince of Compounding? Photodegradation, disintegration, and oxidative biodegradation are not truly biodegradable plastics. The Plastics Industry Technology Development Center (abbreviated as the Plastics Center) boasts the only biodegradable laboratory in Taiwan certified by the US BPI, Germany's Dincertco, and the Environmental Protection Agency. In recent years, major domestic and international brands have proposed replacing existing plastic products with biodegradable plastics, and many suppliers have submitted their raw materials for verification. Huang Yuping, a specialist in the Analytical Business Group of the Analytical Technology Department, stated that the Plastics Center completed the laboratory expansion this year and can currently test approximately ten sets of samples. However, clients still need to wait until August next year due to the huge volume of submissions. Huang Yu-ping pointed out that while many countries around the world have proposed plastic restriction policies that allow the use of alternative materials, these require rigorous "compostable" certification. "Compostable plastics must pass two tests—biodegradable and compostable—to obtain certification," she said. She explained that plastics are composed of multiple polymer molecules, not a single material. Therefore, photodegradable plastics, disintegrating plastics, and oxidatively biodegradable plastics are available on the market. "However, these are not biodegradable, nor are they compostable plastics." (Image provided by the Plastics Center) She further explained that photodegradable plastics are made by adding photosensitive accelerators to traditional plastic materials (PS, PP, PE, PVC, etc.). The radiation energy of ultraviolet light causes a chain reaction that breaks down the polymer chains, causing the plastic to crack. It will appear to crack due to sun exposure, but small fragments will eventually remain. Disintegratable plastics are made by mixing traditional plastic ingredients with starch. This induces microorganisms in the environment to devour and disintegrate the starch, but the plastic components remain broken into fragments and do not decompose. Oxo-biodegradable plastics are also made by adding oxidizing additives to traditional plastic materials. They gradually decompose upon exposure to oxygen and sunlight, ultimately breaking into very small, bioabsorbable particles that persist. "All three types of plastic are simply traditional plastics with other substances added. Although they will break, they do not decompose and are not compostable. Furthermore, the plastic fragments remaining after shattering have the same physical properties as undecomposed plastics, which can easily lead users to misunderstand this as "decomposition" and encourage littering, resulting in environmental pollution." Huang Yuping explains that just as traditional plastics can contain additives, biodegradable plastics may also contain additives. "Therefore, biodegradable plastics don't necessarily mean they're compostable. They must also pass tests for decomposition rate, disintegration, phytotoxicity, and heavy metal content before they can be considered compostable." [https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7888/47378893582_33d1b2024f_b.jpg] Biodegradable plastics are widely used. The picture shows biodegradable plastic agricultural mulch. Image source: Qiaofu Company. Your name needs certification. "Compostable plastic" takes eight months to process, including planting vegetables to calculate germination rates. Huang Yu-ping stated that besides the German and EU Dincertco (Seedling) compostable label, the US BPI compostable label, and the domestic Environmental Protection Administration's biodegradable plastic environmental label, other commonly used international compostable plastic packaging includes Belgium's OKCOMPOST compostable label, Japan's GreenPla compostable label, and Australia and New Zealand's Seedling compostable label. "To enter a market, a product needs to obtain certification from that market, but the standards are largely similar. In principle, it must meet conditions such as a 90% decomposition rate within 180 days, a 90% disintegration rate within 84 days, no phytotoxicity in the compost, and no heavy metals," he said. Currently, the mainstream raw materials for biodegradable plastics in the industry include about ten types such as polylactic acid (PLA), polybutylene succinate (PBS), and polycaprolactone (PCL), mainly ethanol dicarboxylic acid-based polymers, and these are still under development. Hsu Cheng-yu, head of the Analytical Technology Development Group at the Plastics Processing Technology Center (PPTC), stated that PTC's "Biodegradable Laboratory" is the first and currently the only laboratory in Taiwan to be certified by Dincertco (Germany), BPI (USA), and TAF (Taiwan). "The laboratory is responsible for performing experiments and issuing reports, while the certification is still issued by certification bodies such as Dincertco and BPI. Therefore, before conducting tests, manufacturers need to confirm the required testing content with the certification bodies." (Explanation of biodegradable testing procedures and methods follows.) According to Hsu Cheng-yu, provided by the Plastics Research Center, the criteria for determining compostable plastics are mainly based on the European unified standard EN13432 and the American ASTM D6400. These criteria require passing four standards: "Material and Heavy Metal Analysis" to identify the main material of the sample and impose limits on 11 heavy metals and fluorine, confirming volatile solids weight >50%; "Completely Biodegradable"—the organic carbon to carbon dioxide conversion rate should reach 70% within 45 days and 90% within 180 days; "Completely Disintegrating"—the degree of disintegration (weight loss) of the sample should reach 90% within 84 days; and finally, "Non-toxic after composting"—the compost products should not negatively impact plant growth, achieving a 90% germination rate and biomass weight compared to the control group. He further explained that once a sample is sent to the laboratory, it undergoes a month of material and heavy metal analysis, six months of disintegration and biodegradation analysis, and a month of plant growth testing before a report is issued. "The entire process takes at least eight months, and the testing process cannot be accelerated; it is a long-term verification test." Toxicity testing (plant growth testing) is provided by the Plastics Center. Industrial compostability isn't enough; the next step is to achieve "home compostability" and "ocean degradability." Xu Chengyu emphasized that compostable plastics are biodegradable in industrial composting environments. Therefore, the composting environment must meet industrial composting conditions; biodegradability may not occur under other conditions. During the testing process, the soil environment must have a pH between 7 and 9, an oxygen concentration of no less than 6%, a moisture content between 50% and 60%, and a temperature controlled at 58 ± 2°C. "Normal soil temperatures cannot reach such high temperatures; specialized industrial composting systems are required to maintain these conditions." This explains why environmental groups believe that biodegradable plastics cannot fundamentally solve the plastic waste problem, as Taiwan currently has no industrial composting sites or recycling systems. However, Hsu Cheng-yu also mentioned that the government is currently working with large domestic companies to plan and build industrial composting plants for biodegradable materials. He believes that Taiwan's biodegradable material recycling system will become more complete in the coming years. Currently, industrial compostable plastics are the mainstream alternative, but the industry has also begun actively developing household composting and marine biodegradable plastics. (Comparison table of industrial and household composting differences.) The Plastics Centre (PCC) stated, "In response to policies in France, Australia, and other regions, the demand for home compost is gradually gaining attention. The testing conditions for home compost (25°C) are closer to the general environment, allowing people to compost and decompose it at home after use." Hsu Cheng-yu explained that this technology is not yet widespread; only the OWS laboratory in Belgium and the Dincertco laboratory in Shanghai can conduct home compost testing globally. "However, with increasing pressure to reduce waste, the development of home compost will inevitably become more widespread. Therefore, the PCC's biodegradation laboratory is working on establishing testing methods for home compost." Hsu Cheng-yu said that the certification methods for home compostable plastics are largely the same as those for biodegradable plastics suitable for industrial composting. The only change is to change the temperature from 58±2°C to 25°C±5°C. "Correspondingly, the decomposition time is extended, from 180 days to 360 days for the biodegradation test and from 84 days to 180 days for the disintegration test." He indicated that currently, more flexible molecular materials are considered suitable for home composting. Furthermore, compostable plastics cannot decompose in water or the ocean, making it difficult to solve the problem of marine plastic waste. Hsu Cheng-yu stated that "marine biodegradable plastics" will also be a future direction for alternative material development. "The marine biological decomposition environment is in saltwater or natural seawater. We will measure and monitor whether samples can decompose into CO2 and H2O, with a decomposition rate of 90%. Additionally, the biotoxicity requirement is that it has no negative impact on marine aquatic organisms, including invertebrates, water fleas, fish, algae, or cyanobacteria." (Requirements for marine biodegradable plastics provided by the Plastics Research Center). In any case, replacing traditional plastics with biodegradable plastics has become a mainstream trend; it's just a matter of time. Besides well-known items like straws and other tableware, Huang Yu-ping also pointed out that the future applications of compostable plastics are quite extensive, including household items like plastic bags, hygiene products like diapers, agricultural and fishery materials such as agricultural films and fishing nets, even the increasingly popular 3D printing materials, and medical supplies such as surgical sutures. From an environmental perspective, source reduction is indeed the fundamental solution to plastic waste. However, plastic products have evolved over a century, profoundly changing modern life. Modern consumption patterns still leave us dependent on plastic products, making complete elimination impossible. Therefore, developing alternative materials that reduce environmental burden could not only be a lifeline for solving the plastic waste problem but also presents enormous business opportunities. Just as celluloid replaced ivory a century ago, better and more environmentally friendly materials may usher in the next century of sustainable development for humanity and the environment. Although Taiwan currently lacks industrial composting facilities, some businesses are independently recycling and decomposing biodegradable bags and developing reuse methods. (Provided by Liren. Source: Environmental Information Center, 2019/12/12)
