Island Leaf first became familiar with the biodegradable and home-compostable Lastic Bamboo Resin in early 2021. Since then, we've learned heaps of information about Lastic Bamboo Resin and its eco-friendly products, the Lastic production process, client needs, and the natural decomposition process. Importantly, we've also learned that many "bioplastic products" claiming to be eco-friendly aren't as nice to the environment as advertised.
Over the past 22 months, we've entertained several clients' questions and comments about products—mainly straws—labeled as "biodegradable." But, unfortunately, most straws labeled as biodegradable aren't.
This month, we'll delve into a few biodegradable pretenders, focusing on straws. Then, we'll focus on the handful of non-petroleum-based but non-biodegradable and un-eco-friendly resins and materials that unscrupulous straw-makers use to dupe customers.
Imposter Materials
Today, there exists no shortage of straw makers and vendors eager to advertise their products as eco-friendly, biodegradable, or even home and garden compostable. So how do these eco-friendly pretenders build the foundation of their faulty message?
The Pretenders and Their Tactics
Pretenders' first glaring marketing tactic is to state an innocent truth. They will always say that their straws contain no petroleum-based plastic. In the case of PLA-made straws, this is true. Fortunately, knowledgeable customers can unravel a vendor's hustle.
Below, we'll look at some phony straws and the components contributing to their quackery. Then, we'll give recommendations about how to spot deceivers. So what are the charlatan materials on trial today? None other than PLA (poly-lactic acid), compounded fiber, and paper.
PLA
We wrote a content piece about the non-compostable material known as PLA a while back. And, clients have brought PLA up in many conversations with us. So, we've decided to give PLA a deserving title: a material of many contradictions.
Many PLA advocates correctly denote that they don't derive their material of choice from traditional fossil fuels. Instead, processors make PLA by fermenting polysaccharides from corn, cassava, sugarcane, or sugar beets. This process makes PLA non-toxic. Thus, medical professionals insert PLA-made sutures, plates, and screws into injured or sick patients. Over time, the human body's immune system naturally breaks down these PLA-made medical devices. Unfortunately, nature is not as keen to decompose PLA.
For PLA to biodegrade, the surrounding environment must maintain a temperature of at least 50°C for a few months. This damming fact condemns PLA to just a few industrial composting and chemical recycling schemes.
With proper chemical recycling and industrial composting infrastructure, PLA manufacturers might create a solid ecosystem in which they successfully and sustainably integrate their products. However, building any complex infrastructure will take significant time and capital. And finally, there's just no getting around the fact that PLA isn't home and garden compostable.
Compounded Plant Fiber (Bagasse)
Today, multitudinous straw producers saturate the market with fiber straws. Fiber straws, also known as "bagasse" straws (the scientific name for the dried plant fiber), come from dried-out plant fibers of corn, sugarcane, agave, rice, wheat, or bamboo. These straws have some positives and negatives. Generally, straws made purely from plant fiber are environmentally friendly. Many of these straws will decompose in just a few months. More importantly, many pure plant fiber straws don't need a constant temperature to biodegrade, possibly making them eligible for coveted home and garden compostable status.
Despite their eco-friendliness, a major negative attribute severely hampers fiber straws' usability: their inherent fragility and brittleness.
Lacking any flexibility or elasticity, a moderate bite, bend, or violent drop-of-the-box in which they're packed will crack or shatter these straws. The slightest break to a plant-fiber straw will render it completely useless. This brittleness is precisely what many straw producers hope to fix, but in doing so, they overcompensate and create more problems.
A few manufacturers out there aim to solve plant-fiber straws' brittleness problem. Seeking to make these straws more bendable, some manufacturers compound plant fiber to other materials, usually a plastic.
Unfortunately, many manufacturers make the grievous choice of using plastic for compounding. As a result, we've seen straws advertised as "biodegradable" that use plastics like EVOH (ethylene vinyl alcohol), "bio-based" PP (polypropylene--if you read carefully, only a tiny percentage of this material is plant-based), PS (polystyrene), or PLA.
While compounding plant fibers to the plastics mentioned above might increase a straw's structural integrity, it comes at the cost of nullifying its biodegradation benefits.
Paper Straws
At the bottom of the barrel, in terms of quality, user experience, and environmentally friendliness, sit the soppy and infamous paper straws. Unfortunately, paper straws are the clear-cut champion when it comes to deceiving purchasers into thinking they're using an eco-friendly straw.
Because of paper's inherent disability to repel water—it becomes soggy after being soaked in water— multitudinous paper straw makers got the hair-brained idea to add a thin plastic layer to their straws' interior. This thin plastic layer is akin to that inside a paper drinking cup. Producers line their paper straws with a plastic coating to strengthen the straws' structure and prevent sogginess—but as a result, they create a non-biodegradable product. In addition, the plastic layer makes it very difficult for paper recyclers to process the straws. Any product containing petroleum-based plastic will not biodegrade.
Signs of Non-Eco-Friendly Straws
As we're marketing and selling actual biodegradable straws, we've got a good idea of how to go about marketing them. Unfortunately, we've also encountered many biodegradable-pretender straws. These straws grind our gears so much that we spent considerable time looking into their marketing tactics. As a result, we've determined a trend. Below are four methods readers can use to orient themselves toward the authentic, eco-friendly, biodegradable straw of their dreams.
1. Over-Emphasizing Plastic Pollution
First and foremost, pretender "biodegradable" straw companies will lace redundant and regurgitated plastic-pollution facts into their marketing copy. Readers should take this as a red flag. We want to emphasize that we're not trying to downplay plastic pollution. However, we think that devoting a large portion of marketing copy to it is overkill. This is because the public already has deep knowledge of the problem.
While marketers should touch on the devastating effects that straws render on the environment, a more effective approach to marketing biodegradable straws exists. It includes delving into the materials, processes, biodegradable and compostable certifications that a straw has, and the special machinery that makes the straws. We write more about the importance of certifications below.
Imposter Straw Detection Skill #1: When readers see a straw company over-emphasizing plastic pollution and under-emphasizing the straw's accolades, components, production process, and certifications, they should beware.
2. Vague Ingredient Explanation
Many straw companies claiming to make "biodegradable, eco-friendly products" fail to disclose their ingredients openly and wholeheartedly, and in a manner that customers can see outright. Compounded-fiber straws are especially egregious culprits here. For example, we've often found straw companies claiming to be 100% compostable yet compound a particular plant fiber (agave, bamboo, sugarcane) to PLA. Remember, PLA is not home and garden compostable—it's only commercially compostable under certain conditions.
Worse yet, sometimes, plant-fiber straw makers will compound their product to a fossil-fuel plastic type—like PP or EVOH. Compounding such plastics to plant fiber immediately nullifies any biodegradation or recyclability.
Imposter Straw Detection Skill #2: Before purchasing biodegradable straws, consumers need to determine what goes into them. Laws prohibit straw companies from concealing all components, making consumers able to see what goes into the straw itself. So, consumers should read all the ingredient information (and the fine print) explaining a "biodegradable" straw's ingredients.
3. No Certifications
Earning biodegradation and compostability certifications from agencies like BPI World, TÜV Rheinland, and DIN CERTCO is crucial. Possessing these indicates the straw is either commercially compostable (industrially compostable) or home and garden compostable. Straw makers must submit their straws to the companies mentioned above and run them through rigorous and time-consuming tests.
Imposter Straw Detection Skill #3: Not all straws meet standards. When they do, the straw makers will almost always put the certification logo on their packaging. If straws don't have the necessary certification, many will create a "logo" of their own that says "compostable." Such labeling is not affirmed by any third-party agency, is invalid, and therefore should not be taken seriously. Thus, consumers must be able to discern between authentic biodegradation logos and half-baked, in-house-made icons.
4. Confusing Home and Garden Compostable with Commercially Compostable
Because most aren't aware of the subtle differences between commercially compostable and home and garden compostable, a simple "compostable" label on a package will lead many to believe that they can toss the used straw into their compost bin after use, and then it'll dissolve to dirt. Such thinking is flawed.
Authentic commercially compostable materials are, in most cases, certified by BPI World. To verify commercial compostability, BPI World will conduct a series of tests under commercial conditions illustrated by ASTM International's D6400 standard. For a product to meet this standard, it must biodegrade under conditions similar to those at a commercial composting plant. You can find a good description of the testing standards here.
Imposter Straw Detection Skill #4: Commercial composting conditions are dissimilar to home and garden composting conditions. A product certified at ASTM D6400 might not decompose in home and garden composting settings. This is because home and garden settings usually don't include a constant 50°C and the aid of aerators pumping in oxygen. Landfilled commercially compostable materials most likely won't biodegrade in due time. However, landfilled home and garden compostable products most likely will because they don't require constant heat and oxygen. Therefore, consumers should always keep the differences between commercial and home and garden compostable in mind.
Eco-Friendly Closing Remarks
The aim of writing this blog is to give readers the skills to make informed decisions when purchasing biodegradable products.
Did you suddenly learn that the PLA straws you've been using aren't as environmentally safe as advertised? Have you discovered that the plant-fiber straw provided at your restaurant is compounded with PP? Are you tired of abusing your mouth with paper straws? Do you want to move on from brittle bagasse straws?
We've got a solution. Lastic straws are 100% home and garden compostable, 100% commercially biodegradable, and earthworm safe. Contact the Island Leaf team, a certified seller of genuine eco-friendly Lastic Bamboo Resin and products, today.
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