Biodegradeable plastic , now often found in credit card bag and bottles , bear additive that are supposed to get microbe to break down tough credit card quicker . But a new study from Michigan State University finds that some of these additives may actually doing , well , jackshit .
Aside from generally sounding virtuous ( thanks , greenwashing ! ) , “ biodegradeable plastic ” is a piece of a catch - all condition , so get ’s get more specific . There are bioplastics , usually made from renewable plant material , and there is average plastic made from petrochemicals with chemical added to step on it up degradation — supposedly , anyway . The current study looks at the latter family .
Researchers at Michigan State University examine three additives in two common types of credit card : miserable - density polyethylene ( aka the stuff of plastic bags ) and PET sheets ( aka the poppycock of plastic containers ) . In possibility , these additives aid attract microbes that will gobble up the plastic .
To examine that , the team put the plastics through a battery of test design to assume different landfill status . First , there was an anaerobic , or O - less , condition , much like being bury at the bottom of a large landfill . Second , they coalesce it with compost . And last , the researchers buried the plastics under soil for three class .
In all of these conditions , the plastic treated with biodegradeable additive fared no better than those without . “ Thus , no evidence was found that these additive promote and/or enhance biodegradation of PE or PET polymers , ” the authors close .
Anearlier study from 2013found that biodegradeable plastics with additives had a likewise unimpressive disk . These studies are limited in length for logistic reason , but they do severalise us that we really do n’t get it on much about take place to so - called “ biodegradeable plastics . ” They might just be too right to be true . [ Environmental Science & Technology , KQED ]
Top effigy : alterfalter / shutterstock
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