Bio Plastic Eco Labels

Bio Plastics are plastics which are made from: - non-fossil fuel raw materials - bio degradable material - both of the above They are increasingly popular in plastic packaging that the consumer can compost at home. So where is is used?

Morrison's has become the second UK supermarket, after Sainsbury’s, to adopt Innovia Films’ biodegradable and compostable plastic packaging for its organic produce.

Innovia has supplied Nature Flex NVS film to ASP Packaging in Watford for conversion for Morrison's produce, particularly tomatoes.

Bio degradable packaging helps reduce the life cycle impact of a product, as disposal at home via the compost heap is a lot better than putting the plastic in a truck and taking it to land fill. There are limitations with bio plastics however as they don't often form a water resistant barrier, so they reduce the shelf life of products such as crisp ( become soggy) and bottled water (water evaporates through bottle). Image: Tommaso.sansone91 [CC0], via Wikimedia Commons Concerns over Bio Plastics Why all bio plastics are not that great.

The worldwide effort by supermarkets and industry to replace conventional oil-based plastic with eco-friendly "bioplastics" made from plants is causing environmental problems and consumer confusion, according to a Guardian study.

The substitutes can increase emissions of greenhouse gases on landfill sites, some need high temperatures to decompose and others cannot be recycled in Britain.

Many of the bioplastics are also contributing to the global food crisis by taking over large areas of land previously used to grow crops for human consumption.

The market for bioplastics, which are made from maize, sugarcane, wheat and other crops, is growing by 20-30% a year.

The industry, which uses words such as "sustainable", "biodegradeable", "compostable" and "recyclable" to describe its products, says bioplastics make carbon savings of 30-80% compared with conventional oil-based plastics and can extend the shelf-life of food.

Full Article at The Guardian

What are Bio-degradeable/Oxy-degradeable Plastics?

Bio Plastic Manufacturer UK

Why all bio plastics are not that great.

Biodegradable plastic bags – as handed out by Tesco, the Co-op and once even sold by the Soil Association – must be good, surely? They have a magic ingredient that means they self-destruct after a few months, breaking up into tiny pieces made of simple molecules that bugs and fungi can happily munch up. Dozens of major corporations use them, including Pizza Hut, KFC, News international, Walmart and Marriott hotels.

But last week, the European Plastics Recyclers Association warned that they "have the potential to do more harm to the environment than good."

Technically what we are talking about here is "oxo-degradable" plastics. These are plastics made to degrade in the presence of oxygen and sunlight, thanks to the addition of tiny amounts of metals like cobalt, iron or manganese.

Full article on Biodegradable Plastics at the Guardian