Sustainability is becoming a worldwide hot topic and you&#;ve undoubtedly heard the terms biodegradable, compostable , and recyclable. With the topic of sustainability comes the question: what packaging solution is best for the environment? Are biodegradable and compostable materials really any different from biodegradable and compostable ones? Should you opt for biodegradable and compostable of goods and friendly options over recyclable ones for your business? All of these questions will be answered throughout this article.
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First of all, what do the terms biodegradable or compostable, compostable, and recyclable really mean? Let&#;s start with the one most of us are familiar with&#;
Recycling is the process of breaking down wastes to create new products and use them again. That way, we conserve resources and keep landfills from overflowing with waste. Recyclable options includes plastic, cans, glass, paper, and cardboard. All of these can be easily dealt with at your local recycling facility.
Just make sure you check your city&#;s rules on recycling before putting anything in the blue recycle bin. Putting something unrecyclable into your recycle bin can compromise a whole batch, causing it to end up entirely in the landfill instead of the one unrecyclable item. For example, pizza boxes contaminated with grease, cheese, or any food remaining can not be recycled. The contaminated part needs to be composted instead.
Well, which items are recyclable? Most plastics, like water bottles, food containers, plastic grocery bags, and plastic wraps, are all recyclable. Other common options for recyclable elements are cardboard, metal, and unbroken glass. Some items will need a special process to be recycled, such as electronics, batteries, and fabric.
Compostable means that a product can be broken down by microbes into carbon dioxide, water, and other inorganic compounds and biomass to create a nutrient-rich soil in about 90 days. This process allows organic items&#;like food scraps, yard scraps, dead flowers, leaves, untreated wood, and pure cotton&#;to return to the soil instead of ending up in landfills and not decomposing in the right conditions, in turn creating the greenhouse gas methane.
Composting has many beneficial uses, including fertilizing and improving the soil&#;s health without leaving any toxic residue behind. The best thing about compostable items is that they don&#;t need to be processed to become useful again. They can be broken down in natural settings, or industrial facilities, and create something useful right away.
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Since compostable packaging can break down in a backyard, they&#;re a great alternative for food packaging because food can contaminate recyclable packaging. Paper and wood-based containers can decompose in any compost bin, but bioplastic containers should only be composted in industrial facilities. To maximize the benefits, opt for 100% compostable trash bags to collect and store your organic waste for curbside pickup.
So, while recognizing and buying compostable products made of cotton, bamboo, and PLA is a good step, the biggest impact happens when they actually end up properly decomposed.
What does biodegradable mean? Although they&#;re often used interchangeably, biodegradable and compostable are not the same thing. The term biodegradable means that a substance can break down naturally, with the help of bacteria and fungi, without leaving harmful substances behind. They simply disintegrate into carbon dioxide, water vapor, and biomass. Sounds a lot like &#;compostable&#;, but the difference between both terms is that biodegradable includes items that are NOT organic. Artificial or chemically produced items can be biodegradable, but not necessarily compostable. That is why all compostable products are also biodegradable, but not every biodegradable product is compostable.
The drawback of non-compostable biodegradable items is that there isn&#;t a specific timeframe for when they will break down. These items, like biodegradable plastic, could stay around for years before they start to disintegrate. So unless your city has a composting facility for biodegradable plastics, these items aren&#;t a very eco friendly option.
So, yes, biodegradable items are a step in the right direction. They break down over time and their base components aren&#;t harmful to the environment. But before you opt for biodegradable products for your business&#;s packaging, make sure that your customer will be able to safely dispose of that packaging.
As a business owner, you need to fully grasp the difference between all three types of compostable goods and eco friendly packaging. To draw a better picture, we&#;ll discuss the difference and differences between a recyclable vs biodegradable vs compostable spoon.
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