As most of you know, we began publishing The Bamboo Press about a year ago. The goal is to share a weekly short-form content piece to familiarize existing and potential Lastic® customers with new Lastic® products, thermoforming or injection molding methods, business development endeavors, and more.
Additionally, we want to help that same audience navigate the tricky and unpredictable currents of the emerging bioplastics industry. So we've published pieces about industrial composting, PLA, PHA (long-form), and how to spot biodegradable imposters.
Today, we're talking about another force in the unpredictable bioplastics-industry current: the possibility of biodegradable film. By film, we mean the stretchy material used to cover perishable meats and vegetables. Film is also used to secure boxes on pallets when they're being shipped. Currently, most films are petroleum-based— HDPE, LDPE, and PET. Manufacturing a home and garden/industrially compostable film that performs like its petrochemical progenitors would be a significant boon to the planet.
Unfortunately, several pretenders have flooded the market with PLA-made films. PLA material will never earn home and garden compostable status. And most PLA materials are not industrially compostable, either. So, those biodegradable doggy-clean-up bags are most likely made from PLA. While they aren't made from fossil fuels (most likely), they won't compost.
Bioplastics made with large amounts of fiber, like Lastic® Bamboo Resin, aren't able to make film. While fiber can provide for structurally-sound and resilient food boxes and straws, stiff-fibrous molecules split film during the film-blowing process.
However, not all hope is lost for authentic home and garden compostable films. In a previous long-form blog, we discussed how canola oil-based PHA could be a viable input for film-blowing resin. What makes canola oil-based PHA so feasible? It has a molecular structure advantageous for film production.
We also discovered another notable candidate. This biodegradable film holds OK Compostable's Home and Garden Compostable Certification and BPI World's Commercial Compostable Certification. Unfortunately, the company did not disclose the precise inputs that make up its film. For us, not disclosing ingredients is a red flag because we believe that every bioplastic-product producer must act transparently. Please note that we're not demanding the producer reveal their recipes' exact proportions or compounding methods because we respect the right to maintain trade secrets. Revealing the ingredients' names, however, is a harmless task.
We staunchly support the concept of home and garden compostable film and stand behind our standards. We require each producer to provide compostability certifications and ingredients used to make their products. We ultimately yearn for a proper home and garden compostable film—but we need proof and transparency from the producers.
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