And they're almost identical.
If you weren't looking for it,
you really wouldn't be able to tell them apart.
When something says it's compostable,
does that mean that it's good for the environment?
- [Kyleen] This is more so like a hard compostable plastic,
and unfortunately right now,
- For the past few years I've noticed this trend,
single use items like straws, cups, and cutlery
are all of a sudden becoming compostable.
When I first started seeing these
I assumed that something labeled compostable
must be an environmentally friendly alternative to plastic.
But, then I went to drop off my compost
at the farmer's market, and I literally read a sign
that said, no compostable plastics.
So what's the deal?
If my composting program is not accepting these materials,
is compostable plastic a lie?
To find out, I'm gonna connect with researchers
who study the environmental impacts
of compostable packaging.
Then I'll visit my compost drop-off site
to understand the challenges of composting these materials.
I'm Lucy Biggers, and this is "One Small Step".
(upbeat music)
I've been worried about plastic in our ocean
since I first made a video about it in 2016.
And if you've watched any of my other videos
you know that I'm a huge fan of composting.
So when I saw this labeled compostable,
I thought it promised that this material
could biodegrade back to the earth in the same way
that our food waste biodegrades when we compost it.
But, it turns out, it's not that simple,
and the environmental impacts of compostable packaging
are still debated today.
For one, the materials could be toxic.
In 2019, Sweetgreen and Chipotle's compostable bowls
made headlines when it was discovered
that they contained PFA chemicals
that have been linked to cancer.
Environmentalist were concerned that if the bowls
were composted, PFAS in the bowls could contaminate
the local environment and the compost.
Second, the label compostable
is not the same thing as sustainable.
In a 2018 report, researchers at
the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality
examined 18 years of life-cycle assessment studies
on the environmental impact of compostable food serviceware.
And found that 76% of the time,
the compostable food serviceware had a higher
environmental impact than the non-compostable packaging.
I'm excited to connect with Peter Canepa,
who's a life-cycle assessment specialist,
who took part in that Oregon compost report.
So what were your findings?
- So the findings we got for compostability
showed that for packaging,
and then even more specifically within packaging
for food serviceware, the potential for something
to be composted actually more times than not
led to higher environmental impacts for that packaging.
- So compostable packaging has a higher environmental impact
than just regular packaging, like plastic.
- Not always.
And just to be clear,
like about two thirds of the time it did,
and about one third of the time
the compostable packaging led to a lower life-cycle.
- [Lucy] Okay, so it depends.
- So it wasn't like consistent across the board.
And that's because these comparisons were
all different material types and production types.
- Do a quick scan online and it becomes obvious
that the types of compostable packaging
that are available to consumers varies greatly.
So you can't say that all compostable packaging
is good or bad.
Instead, it's important
what environmental variables you look at.
So, for example, the production of compostable bio-plastics,
like this fork, are made from sugarcane, soy, or corn.
And they produce less greenhouse gases
than plastic made from oil.
However, bio-plastics made from plants require farming,
which uses more land, fertilizer, and pesticides.
Which causes pollution, acidification, and algae blooms.
Now this doesn't mean that using fossil fuels
to create plastics isn't bad, their negative effects
are well-documented and researched.
But it does go to show that in certain cases
compostables can have a greater drain on certain resources.
- Another challenge with compostable,
in particular things like compostable food serviceware,
they are often very similar in their aesthetic,
in their feel, to regular non-compostable food serviceware.
That leads to confusion for users
and often can lead to contamination of compost,
when these lookalikes get put in the compost.
And here in Oregon, that's a big problem.
So much so that actually all 13 of our industrial composters
kind of put out sort of a letter
to all the local jurisdictions saying, look,
we don't want this food serviceware in the compost,
because it's very challenging for us to deal with it.
We end up getting contamination,
we have to go through the compost.
And also, the addition of these compostable
food serviceware packages prevents the composters
from promoting or selling their finished compost as organic.
- [Lucy] The challenge of composting these materials
brings me back to Union Square.
Last week, I saw this sign that said,
no compostable plastics.
So I decided to come back to understand
why they have this policy.
I'm gonna talk to Kyleen Sanchez,
who works for the Lower Eastside Ecology Center,
to try to understand why they don't accept these materials
that should be going to the compost.
Last week I was here,
there was a sign that said, no compostable plastics.
But this week I don't see it.
So where is it?
- [Kyleen] Yeah, so we are putting it away temporarily
because we are now accepting
the BPI certified compostable bags.
This bio bag is something that we've been testing
for over six months now.
And we actually do, this is the one item
that we do actually accept here.
- [Lucy] BPI, or the Biodegradable Products Institute,
has been certifying compostable packaging
since the late '90s.
They scientifically verify that items
will successfully break down in composting facilities
without harming the quality of the finished compost.
A material can be approved for backyard composting,
like the bag we just saw,
or composting at an industrial composting site,
which have the bigger scale and higher temperatures
to process more difficult materials.
- [Kyleen] So they're good to in our compost.
Versus, something like this.
This is more so like a hard compostable plastic.
And unfortunately right now we don't take it in our compost.
We have to do a little bit more of like
testing with this as well.
But right now we cannot accept
the harder compostable plastics.
- Most hard compostable plastics are certified
for industrial composting, which means
you can't just toss it in to your compost at home.
The problem is, most Americans
don't have access to industrial composting.
According to research by compost science journal Biocycle,
there are just around 200 full scale composting sites
in the US that can process compostable plastics.
And of those 200 composting sites,
less than 50% accept compostable plastic products.
So it sounds like with compostable plastic,
it's like it depends,
it varies so much from material to material,
which is really confusing for the consumer.
- [Kyleen] It is, it is.
Which is why we specifically use
the ones certified from BPI,
because those we've tested, and those are okay.
If it's a bag that you see that's literally just green,
I would say don't trust it,
because there's no certification on there.
- Just a few minutes later,
this woman came up with a green bag
and thought it was compostable.
Turns out it was just plastic.
So she thought that this one was compostable,
but then if you look at it, there's no compostable marking.
This has the HTPE, which is a plastic.
So what about the original problem
that drew me to compostables in the first place?
Do compostable plastics play any part
in alleviating that problem?
Well, the short answer is no.
I reached out to the Sustainable Packaging Coalition
to understand how these materials interacted with the ocean.
And they told me in an email,
Recently, several institutions and countries
have banned single use plastics
in an attempt to curb ocean plastic pollution.
In University of California's ban they said they will,
incentivize vendors to develop reusable
and compostable packaging for their products.
But from researching compostable plastics,
I'm worried that using them could create
a whole new host of problems without solving
the initial problem of ocean plastic pollution.
So here's what you can do.
One, reduce.
Every expert I spoke to said reducing is the best option
and the only way to really lower our footprint.
Two, if you still need to use single use items
and wanna use compostable plastics,
look for that BPI certification.
And then when you're done using the combustibles,
make sure they're actually getting composted.
That's all for this episode of compostable plastics.
I hope you learned something and you can share
with your friends the information in this video.
And on this, I didn't even touch upon
the impacts of compostable plastics
when they go to landfill.
In other videos I've talked about
how sending food waste and clothing to landfill
is bad because it biodegrades and releases methane.
There's still a lot of research about
how compostable plastics act in a dump,
and maybe that's a video I'll do in the future.
Thank you so much for watching.
I'm Lucy Biggers.
See you next time.
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