Compostable plastic items have been under fire by Stanford Students and Teachers as studies have recently came out that products made from PLA are just not breaking down in compost facilities. Some compost sites are claiming “We can’t take those products, our compost piles are organic”. Which leaves these “Compost Plastic’s” lonely and out of place, so they are thrown into the landfill.
Over the past few years California Attorney General has placed lawsuits against companies and their claims of “biodegradability” if it doesn’t meet the ASTM D6400 standard for compostability in California. We question the motives if local Californians are not able to compost “compostable products” and the biodegradable products are easily thrown into the landfill. Stanford students even report “Even when compostable bins are provided, they are contaminated with non-compostable items”. The AG of California may need to look at the “compostable” claims. One of the providers of compostable tableware states their products will break down in 6 months in accordance with the ASTM D6400, yet their product can withstand 200F, the students at Stanford are yet to be convinced as well as local compost operators which state “If the fork is in the middle it may break down, but if it is an inch under the surface, it may not”.
That is why BioSphere’s compostable/biodegradable additive technology works no matter the bin, compost or landfill the product will decompose and create soil or energy. The consumer chooses the destination and it is a one stop solution for plastic pollution.
This article was sourced from the Stanford Daily and has been dubbed “The ForkPrint Project” .
Here is a great video about “compostable forks” and how the students are responding to questions asked by their fellow student.
Source Article: https://forkprintproject.files.wordpress.com/2010/02/www_stanforddaily_com-1.pdf
Source Website: https://forkprintproject.wordpress.com/
