Reality check: bioplastics are not going to save the world
Bioplastics resemble plastic but are made from plant-based materials, usually corn. They are designed to provide a faster degrading and “sustainable” alternative to petroleum-based plastics.
The idea behind bioplastics is noble, but this is a case of a well-meaning solution causing new problems. It just underscores the inconvenient truth that when we complicate solutions, we are bound to complicate the problems too.
First, bioplastic is touted as “compostable”, however it won’t compost in a home compost system. It must be composted in a commercial facility, which most folks don’t have access to. And even if they did, most of the bioplastic serving ware handed out at restaurants ends up in the garbage bin or as litter.
Second, bioplastics are usually corn-based. Corn is a renewable crop, but there are concerns about diverting corn from people, livestock and bio-fuels so we can make more disposable cups.
Third, bioplastics can look identical to regular plastics. Most people who receive a food or beverage item packaged in bioplastic don’t even know what they have. And this leads to, if not the aforementioned problem of it getting tossed out with the rest of the garbage, to another problem: it gets placed by well-meaning consumers into the recycling bin. But bioplastics cannot be recycled, so when they get mixed in with recyclable plastics, they can contaminate entire recycling batches, undermining recycling programs and driving up costs.
When you add up all the problems, bioplastics don’t seem to be helping. I’m not suggesting that regular plastics are better. They aren’t. But bioplastic is not the solution we should be investing land, corn, fossil fuels (oh, yes–fossil fuels are still a large part of taking bioplastics from seed to consumer), money and time into. It’s either back to the drawing board, or we just start figuring out how to use less single-use, disposable stuff.
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