Plastics & Sustainability
Dive into the critical issues and discover the transformative potential of compostable alternatives.
The Problem
Over 20 million tonnes of plastic waste leaks into our environment annually. There are currently over 100 million tonnes of plastic waste in the world’s rivers and 30 million in our oceans!
Apart from ruining natural beauty, the most upsetting effects are on marine and land animals, which endure suffering and meet their unnecessary demise following entanglement and ingestion.
Without change in 2060 this leakage will have doubled to over 40 million tonnes and the amount of accumulated plastic in rivers and oceans will have tripled to approach 500 million!
01
Plastic Pollution
Plastic possesses great qualities, but its resistance to degradation has created an ever-worsening global nightmare.
The Solution
Biofuture’s packaging provides all of the positive qualities of normal plastic but is compostable.
Compostability is a feature of some biodegradable plastics that enables unprecedented waste treatment options at the end of use – these being industrial composting and anaerobic digestion. The former leads to the creation of regenerative soil-enriching compost and the latter to the production of renewable biogas.
For a material to be certified compostable and not plain biodegradable it must be amenable to degrading into natural, harmless elements under specific conditions within 12 weeks.
The Solution
Compostable packaging is capable of detaching economic growth from needless finite resource consumption and environmental damage.
Biofuture introduces renewable plants into the production of packaging which absorb atmospheric carbon dioxide during growth, progressively decreasing carbon emissions and dependence on fossil fuels.
Some of the carbon stored in the compostable packaging and food waste which are turned into compost can remain in the soil for decades creating carbon sinks.
The Problem
Greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuel derived plastics are estimated to be 1.8 billion tonnes annually, with 90% coming from the production phase.
Plastics made from recycled materials represent 6% of the 460 million tonnes of plastics produced annually, the rest are made from new raw materials. Over 99% of the new plastics are made from fossil fuels.
Without change in 2060 emissions from plastics production are expected to have doubled, reaching 4.3 billion tonnes; the plastics industry will consume 20% of global oil supply.
02
Climate Changing Emissions
The production of normal plastics involves the extraction and processing of significant crude oil and natural gas with a colossal carbon impact.
The Problem
These particles have been discovered in the digestive tract of marine organisms proceeding to human consumption, food and beverages, and are capable of absorbing and transporting contaminants.
Research on worms and crabs has revealed deleterious effects at high levels of exposure such as impaired growth and reduced cognitive function.
There is no present scientific understanding of their pervasiveness in the environment or effects on humans.
03
Microplastics
Microplastics are particles less than 5 millimetres in length resulting from the abrasion and degradation of plastics.
The Solution
Although all materials produce smaller particles through abrasion and degradation, there is a notable difference between normal and biodegradable plastics particles.
Biodegradable particles will encounter microbes in the open environment capable of metabolising them. Compostable plastics are also designed to be processed within the confines of facilities ensuring degradation before release in the form of compost. This means that adoption of compostable plastics would abolish durable microplastics in compost and their accumulation in the environment.
Our packaging is calibrated to meet the optimum balance of functional reliability and disintegration speed.
The Problem
The world creates over 350 million tonnes of plastic waste annually, with packaging representing over 40%.
Most of this packaging is left idle in landfills. Mountains of food waste which could be transformed into compost or biogas is being squandered due to processing incompatibilities with normal plastic – contamination of either results in the utilisation of neither.
Food waste in landfills generates methane emissions 25 times more damaging than carbon dioxide.
04
Waste
Normal plastics lead to monumental waste of potential.
The Solution
The value of compostable packaging does not lie in its material recovery, although that is a circular advantage, but in the diversion of food waste to the composting or anaerobic digestion plant – as a compatible vehicle.
Compostable plastics are designed to be disposed of and processed together with food waste in one convenient compostable stream.
Compostable plastics allow for sanitary separate collection of food waste and staggeringly decrease contamination of both organic waste streams with normal plastic and normal plastic streams with food waste.
