What’s the difference in biodegradable, compostable and recyclable packaging?

Biodegradable, compostable, recyclable, eco-friendly… with the impacts of climate change now firmly on the public conscience, I’m seeing these words appear on packaging more and more. For the most part my brain processes them as the same thing and I’m pretty sure they’re designed like that. To be all sneaky and confusing. But what do they all actually mean and are they as eco-friendly as they claim? Am I just being conned into buying something that will end up in a landfill or ingested by a whale? Depressingly, probably.

But first, the stats on waste

I’ll be frank, the stats are grim. Globally, we produce over 2 billion tonnes of municipal solid waste and dump over 8 million metric tons of plastic waste in the oceans each year. Each person generates an average of almost 1kg of waste daily. Think about that. I just did and based on my quick garbage day maths, I’m embarrassed to say I definitely fit the bill. So. Gross.

By the year 2050, global waste is projected to reach 3.40 billion tonnes annually ranging in a 19% increase for higher income countries and 40% increase for middle to low income countries. 

Source: https://datatopics.worldbank.org/what-a-waste/trends_in_solid_waste_management.html

Ramani Narayan, a Michigan State University professor of engineering with expertise in sustainability, says that 50 percent of the materials that go to landfill in the U.S is organic waste. Organic waste is eventually converted to methane, which has over 28 times as large of an impact on global warming as CO2. 

In Canada, only 9% of plastics are recycled. The rest is either incinerated, landfilled or ends up in the environment. 

Back in Ireland, each person generates more than 200kg of waste packaging per year. Above the EU average, but below the global average. Food waste also costs households 700 euro a year. 

Source: https://datatopics.worldbank.org/what-a-waste/trends_in_solid_waste_management.html

Ok back to these terms, what are the differences in recyclable, biodegradable and compostable?

Recyclable 

Recyclable material can be broken down and remade other objects. Some materials can be recycled multiple times (metals, glass and aluminum) but others have a limit (paper). 

Advantages

• Extends the period of time it takes for material to make it to a landfill. 
• Some material can be recycled infinitely. In fact, two thirds of all aluminum ever produced is still in use today. 

Disadvantages

• Some material can only be recycled a limited number of times. Since paper fibres become shorter each time they are recycled, they can only be recycled about 5-7 times. 
• Because recycling systems and processes differ across regions, for the end consumer, it can be pretty confusing when it comes to sorting our recyclable items. 
• While an item may be recycled into another material, e.g. a plastic bottle into a t-shirt, that t-shirt may not be recyclable and could end up in a landfill anyway. 
• While glass is easily recycled, due to its weight it can actually create more pollution than plastic.

Biodegradable 

Biodegradable refers to material that can be broken down using natural processes and microorganisms.

But the term is pretty misleading and in the “bioplastic” realm, the only difference in polyethylene or PET and bio polyethylene or Bio-PET is that the latter uses a raw ingredient from plants instead of fossil fuels. In the U.S. a product labelled “bioplastic” only needs to contain a minimum of 25% carbon from biological sources. 

Advantages

• In some circumstances, the use of bioplastics can reduce carbon emissions. But because of other factors in production, this may not always be the case. A 2018 study by the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre found that there would be no substantial difference in lifetime emissions between traditional PET bottles and those made from bioplastics in Europe. This is because currently regular PET is manufactured in Europe, but bio-PET is primarily manufactured in the U.S., causing significant emissions generation during transport.

Disadvantages

• The term can be applied pretty loosely and is often misleading. With the time to decompose being anywhere from 6 months to 1,000 years, almost anything can be considered biodegradable if given enough time. California banned the use of the term in marketing since without stating how long something takes to degrade, and in what system, the term is pretty much meaningless. 
• While bioplastic may not actually be compostable, in theory it is recyclable, similar to other plastic. Unfortunately, most recycling facilities don’t currently accept this material. 
• Bioplastics are a small slice of the plastic pie, currently only representing 1% of the 359 million tonnes of plastics produced globally each year. 

Compostable 

Compostable refers to material that can be broken down entirely into non-toxic components. For material to be considered compostable it must decompose within 180 days. 

Industrial	Home
Most compostable packaging, like paper, cardboard or plastic needs to be sent to an industrial composting facility in order to achieve the correct conditions to decompose.	You can put plenty of food waste in your home compost, coffee grounds, egg shells etc.

Advantages 

• Byproduct is nutrient-rich and great for soil. This product replenishes the carbon in the soil, discourages weeds from growing, and makes the soil more porous.

Disadvantages

• You need to send compostable products to the appropriate facilities, not a landfill. They need specific conditions to break down so you need to be careful how you handle them. For example, PLA (polylactic acid), a popular compostable bioplastic, is used to make plastic cutlery and clamshell containers requires 60°C in a moist environment for 7 days to decompose. 
• Typical home composts only reach around 40 to 50°C. Meaning it will take too long in a home composting system to break down most commercial compostable packaging to be of any benefit. 
• PLA (polylactic acid) are not accepted by most municipal or commercial composting programs in Canada. That means they’re often sent to landfill where they can take more than 100 years to decompose, releasing methane in the process. 

So between recyclable, biodegradable and compostable, which one is the best?

What are governments doing to help?

The Canadian government planned to ban single-use plastics in 2021. 

In 2018, Canada and four other leading economies signed a charter at the G7 leaders’ summit, pledging that by 2040 all plastic produced in their countries would be reused, recycled or burned to produce energy. 

Ireland plans to change human behaviour by introducing a ban on single use plastics, including a reduction in food waste by 50 percent and cutting landfill disposal by 60 percent. 

What are companies doing? 

In my opinion, not enough. But some are doing somethings. 

• PepsiCo is striving for 100% of its packaging to be recoverable or recyclable by 2025.
• Unilever has pledged that 100% of its plastic packaging will be fully reusable, recyclable or compostable by 2025.
• Tim Hortons, McDonalds and Burger King are piloting reusable cups with Loop. Customers will pay a small deposit fee which they get back when they drop off their cup at participating locations. 

What can we do?

So after all of this, what can one person actually do? Personally, my individual actions to try and minimise my environmental impact come from a place of feeling like it’s my duty as a citizen of this planet to do as little harm as possible while I’m here for future generations. I know that I’m not necessarily saving the world by using a reusable coffee cup but I can’t in good conscience not. I also think it’s important for those that are aware of this responsibility to help normalize the mentality that the earth is not a resource to be exploited, rather a place that we need to care for. I can’t guarantee that anyone will pay attention or change but we’re pretty lemming-like as a human race. Maybe monkey-see, monkey-do for the good. 

If you’re interested, here’s some things that I do, or try to do, that might help you and your conscience: 

• Bring your own bags to the grocery store. Most countries have introduced a charge on plastic bags in an effort to reduce plastic consumption. You can buy reusable bags in most grocery stores or cuter ones from local businesses or on etsy. For a small investment, it’ll save you in disposable plastic bag costs and save landfills from more plastic waste. 
• Vote with your wallet and try to choose products that have recyclable or compostable packaging, like paper, cardboard or aluminium.
• Try to choose items with reusable packaging or that you can easily upcycle, e.g. if I’m buying pasta sauce I buy Classico, because it’s packaged in glass mason jars that I can easily reuse for food, flower vases, tea light candle holders etc. 
• Some stores allow you to bring your own containers and pay by weight.
• Using a reusable water bottle and coffee cup can help cut down on to-go cups and plastic water bottles. 
• And finally, the mantra of 2020 “hold your government accountable”. Beyond normalizing sustainability in our own lives, we need our governments to create better regulations and systems to encourage companies to change the way they develop and package their products. 

---

---

Disclaimer: This post is intended to serve as a log of my rambling opinions and tracker of information gathered on a topic. I aim to present accurate, well researched information, citing facts presented to the best of my ability. However, some information may prove to be inaccurate and I encourage you to do your own research on the topic. I’m always open to hearing new information or perspectives on topics posted and aim to keep this post accurate with updated information once discovered or presented to me. Feel free to comment below if you have anything to add 🙂

Header Photo by Anna Shvets from Pexels