Guest writer for Film Biz Recycling, Shannon E. Schaefer of
EcoSet Consulting, LLC, writes of her experience. Amazing!
11.1 Tons of Waste, Diverted
Last fall I had the honor to work on the Coen Brother’s latest feature film, “A Serious Man”. Throughout the 44 day shoot, and with the support of FOCUS Features we were able to divert 11.1 tons of set waste. Nearly 80% of the 14 tons of trash produced on set did not end up in the incinerators of Minneapolis, Minnesota. How? It was simple. We composted.
We recycled as well. But in the end, recycling our cardboard, bottles and cans accounted for less than one ton (6%) of our total set waste. This low percentage is in part because we provided reusable bottles and water stations, limiting the amount of plastic on set. Plastic water bottles were not totally banned, but the availability of water stations prevented over 10,000 plastic water bottles from being used. Not bad.
What about other 74% of our trash? We returned 10.3 tons of the set waste to the earth, via the age-old practice of composting.
Composting is fantastic. The sheer amount of set waste it can convert to “black gold” puts our old environmental “recycling is good enough” mantra to shame. We were able to compost virtually ALL of our catering and craft service waste: fruit, veggies, meat, bones, dairy, sugarcane plates and bowls, paper and corn cups, corn utensils, and paper napkins. Basically anything that was once an animal or a plant is now compost.
Our compost site wasn’t just any farmer’s pile. With the help of non-profit Eureka Recycling and local hauler Boone Trucking, we sent all of our plant and animal based waste to a commercial composting site. Commercial sites are different than a traditional backyard compost pile because they are well monitored and reach a much higher temperature, thus allowing us to compost alternative “plastic” products such as corn (PLA) cups and utensils.
Compostable vs. Biodegradable and Landfills
There is a common misconception about compostable and biodegradable products and what actually happens when you throw them away. With the rising popularity of “green” caterers and events using the alternative disposable products (corn/potato-ware, etc) I would like to take a moment explain what this actually means for the environment.
Biodegradable material is capable of being completely broken down into carbon dioxide, water and biomass with the aid of microorganisms. Compostable material biodegrades, but only under specific conditions – for example, the regulated high temperatures of a commercial composting site.
All of the PLA (polylactic acid, usually made from corn) products biodegrade only in high temperature compost conditions. Some potatoware and bagasse plate/bowl products (bagasse is the fibrous material leftover after sugarcane juice is extracted from its stalk) may biodegrade more readily, but do so fastest when in a controlled compost environment.
These organic based disposable products are a good alternative to plastic, which can take hundreds of years to decompose. It is also favorable that often they are produced in a more sustainable fashion than their plastic counterparts. But this is where the green party ends. When you throw your corn fork in the trash it goes to a landfill and as it breaks down it produces the same green house gas, methane, as any other garbage. Not only that but the organic acids produced in the biodegradation process create a toxic heavy metal leachate. Who would have thought corn to be so foul?
When the same PLA fork gets commercially composted, hydrolysis and microbial action breaks it down into carbon dioxide and water. Better? Yes. Perfect? No. There is no “best practice” when it comes to disposable products. There is still much debate about the sustainability of corn products such as PLA as well as other alternative goods. For now, it’s a step away from plastic and in the right direction. If you really want to be sustainable, use reusable flatware. If that is not an option, compost!
Start Composting on Set
Implementing composting takes a little effort, education and planning, and the resources are not everywhere yet. But demand brings supply. Please support your local haulers and commercial compost sites as well as the craft service and caterers who are attempting to “go green.” If the implementation of one new system was able to bring the Coen Brother’s set to 80% waste diversion so easily, I believe one day all film production sets could be at 100% zero waste. That is when filmmaking will start to become truly sustainable.
Shannon E. Schaefer
EcoSet Consulting, LLC
EcoShannon@gmail.com
Saturday, March 21, 2009
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The Evolution of Biodegradable Plastic
Biodegradable plastic is plastic that biodegrades into humus when disposed of, due to the action of the micro-organisms that turn dead plant life into humus, the organic part of soil. The result is a rich and fertile soil.
There have been three generations of biodegradable plastic. The first was starch based plastic, PLA, almost always made out of corn. The second generation was oxo-biodegradable conventional plastic, and the third, the current generation, is biodegradable conventional plastic.
PLA, or corn-based plastic
PLA, or corn-based plastic, was the first generation of biodegradable plastic. It is still made and promoted by corporate giants that have huge financial and political power, such as the Dow Chemical Company, Cargill, Inc., and Archer Daniel Midlands, but it has many drawbacks.
It is billed as 'sustainable,' as it is based on food sources, primarily corn. However, if all of the disposable plastic products in the world were made out of corn, 150,000,000 tons of corn would be used to make plastic. Prices for corn would rise dramatically, and third world hunger would increase even more dramatically. There are currently 850,000,000 hungry people in the third world. If we imagine that condition worsening greatly, the result could only be a humanitarian catastrophe of appalling proportions. That is the real ramification of 'sustainability' in today's world.
Furthermore, PLA isn't a very good plastic. It imparts an off taste to water when used for water bottles, it melts when used as soup spoons, it's weak, and therefore items made of it are heavy, it has a short shelf life, and it often starts to decay before use, while still on the shelf. What's more, almost no recyclers accept it for recycling. In fact, recyclers dislike PLA and are trying to ban it, because it gets confused with more conventional plastics, and ruins their recycled plastic batches.
Even commercial composters have a limited appetite for PLA, as it adversely affects the compost batch as too much PLA makes the compost too acidic. One bottle manufacturer did a survey of commercial composters and found that 90% of those surveyed would not accept PLA bottles. Furthermore, PLA cannot be composted by home composters - PLA requires elevated heat beyond what the natural compost process generates to compost.
The state of California is promoting this product by limiting the use of the term biodegradable, and all synonyms for biodegradability to PLA, which decays within 120 days in commercial (not home) composting facilities. Unfortunately PLA decays so fast in an oxygen-free (anaerobic) environment (typical of landfills,) that it generates methane in landfills before they are capped to tap the methane. Generating methane quickly in landfills is undesirable because it is a potent greenhouse gas. If it is generated before the landfill is capped, it outgasses into the atmosphere, promoting global warming. (Click to see a video about using methane from landfills.)
Oxo-Biodegradable Plastic, the Second Generation of Biodegradable Plastic
The second generation plastic oxo-biodegradable plastic was very different than the the previous generation of biodegradable plastic called PLA, starch-based plastic, or 'spudware. Oxo-biodegradable plastic had many advantages over PLA-It was invulnerable to water, one might adjust it to the desired biodegradation rate, some products could contain recycled content, it could be recycled, it didn't diminish the grain supply, it was stronger, less expensive, and was made from an otherwise useless industrial byproduct, naphtha.
This second-generation biodegradable plastic is little known in the US, but is is well established and widely used in Europe. Tesco and Carrefours, the largest grocery chains in the world, and in France, respectively, package their customers' groceries in oxo-biodegradable 't-shirt' bags. In fact, the largest bakers in Mexico and South Africa package bread in oxo-biodegradable bags, and oxo-biodegradable plastic is becoming common in India and China. The US is so far behind the curve on this, that it is a little embarrassing.
Oxo-biodegradable plastic doesn't biodegrade when deeply buried in landfills*, because it requires an initial phase of degeneration which required certain environmental factors-oxygen and one of the following three circumstances-heat, UV light, or mechanical stress-and because the subsequent biodegredation part of the degredation only works in oxygenated environments. These circumstances don't exist when deeply buried in landfills, so oxo-biodegradable plastics don't have any benefit for products deeply buried in landfills. Oxo-biodegradable products do, however, offer a benefit if litter is the primary concern, as they degrade in the presence of UV light.
The Third Generation of Biodegradable Conventional Plastics,
which are used in our products.
There is now a third generation biodegradable product which is the standard plastic we use daily, naptha based plastic, with an additive that will cause it to biodegrade without the need of heat, UV light, mechanical stress, or oxygen. This third-generation plastic is called biodegradable plastic, and it biodegrades when placed into the ground due to the action of micro-organisms naturally occurring in soil. We are now using the third generation additives in all of our products. It has all of the benefits of oxo-biodegradable plastics-it is recyclable, is invulnerable to water, some products can have recycled content, it doesn't diminish the grain supply, and it is stronger, less expensive, and made of an otherwise useless industrial byproduct. It also has the advantage of having the same shelf life as regular plastic, unlike PLA and oxo-biodegradable plastic, as it does not biodegrade until it is in the presence of soil micro-organisms.
Additionally, this new plastic will definitely biodegrade when buried in the ground in either aerobic or anaerobic environments, ie. in a land fill. Like PLA, this new plastic will produce small amounts of methane in a land fill if deeply buried, but not so quickly as PLA, and like PLA, it will produce small amounts of carbon dioxide as a result of the metabolism of micro-organisms if it decomposes in the presence of oxygen.
With this new generation of biodegradable plastic, biodegradation is delayed long enough that there is time to cap the landfills, so the methane is burned off or even used to generate electricity, as is being done in almost 500 US land fills currently. Like all of our products, this new plastic is recyclable and completely non-toxic to people, plants, and animals, and is made of ingredients approved by the FDA for food contact.
In our view, by using conventional biodegradable plastic we are following in the footsteps of the plains Indians, who used every part of the buffalo, the chief resource in their environment. We take an industrial byproduct that used to be wasted and turn it into useful packaging materials and other disposable items. Then the disposable items are turned into humus, to the benefit of the soil and the plants it nurtures. Waste gasses from the conversion process are then used to make electricity. We thus have progressed from wasting an asset to generating three benefits from it for people and our planet.
Our Products
We offer biodegradable plastic disposable items of the third generation type in the following products: Cutlery, water bottle preforms and deli containers and lids. We also offer oxo-biodegradable (second generation) t-shirt bags, garbage bags, produce bags, straws, and hot cup lids. We are working on sourcing third generation biodegradable garbage bags but do not currently have them available. We are rapidly expanding our product line, so please check back for more products.
published at http://biogreenproducts.biz by Tim Dunn
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