Biodegradabile or Compostable?

Federal Trade Commission Definition for Biodegradability Off Target

A funny thing happened to me on the way to the local garbage dump. I was listening to the news on my radio when I heard that the Federal Trade Commission didn't consider trash that was placed in a standard, run of the mill dry tomb garbage dump, to be biodegradable. I was astonished to learn that my trash because it would be in a dry tomb landfill where it will be compacted, covered with dirt and compacted some more, could not be considered as biodegradable. I couldn't believe what I was hearing, the leaves, branches and grass clippings in the back of my truck had been rendered "Non-Biodegradable" by the federal government.

Based on the FTC's view of our typical garbage dump, Archeologists thousands of years from now will be able to drill through compacted layers of trash and just like Indiana Jones, find out how I lived by looking at what I threw away. According to the FTC, garbage in a traditional dry tomb landfill doesn't go away, at least not very fast. I guess we humans just use our landfills to hide our trash from our sight and noses.

The federal government (Federal Trade Commission) has determined that since things do not biodegrade in a landfill (quickly), any item that is disposed of by tossing it in the garbage cannot be called biodegradable. I believe they missed the target with this definition. Based on their view, everything that goes into a landfill...aka...garbage dump...will not biodegrade. That's just not accurate. Everything will biodegrade, and everything will biodegrade at different rates depending on the what's happening within the layers of garbage inside the landfill. For example, if more oxygen is present, biodegrading will be enhanced and if moisture is present, biodegrading will be enhanced.

Lets take a look at a couple of different products:

PLA (Corn starch or other plant starch plastics) are considered to be biodegradable and recyclable. Saying something is recyclable doesn't make it so. Recyclers are the ones who actually determine if something is recyclable. PLA plastic won't have recycle value until the recycling industry develops a commercial market for recycled PLA plastic and currently there isn't much demand for recycled PLA plastic. That means that since there isn't a current market for recycled PLA most of it will be thrown away and PLA that ends up in a landfill doesn't biodegrade quickly. PLA that ends up in a landfill will languish for years just like all the other plastics that are thrown away.
To properly dispose of PLA plastic is must be composted. Not in your back yard composter, but in a commercial composting facility with regulated temperatures, moisture and mechanical turning. Commercial composting sites in the U.S. are far and few between which is another reason our landfills will soon be full of PLA plastic.

Based on the recent misguided FTC ruling, and the fact that most PLA will end up in our landfills, the FTC would probably have to consider PLA plastic as "non-biodegradable."

Let’s take another example, leftover food. If you dig a hole in your backyard and put your food scraps in the hole and cover it with dirt, your food scraps will biodegraded within two to three weeks. Food placed in a back yard hole would be considered biodegradable. Now, let’s take that same piece of lettuce and take it to our local garbage dump...oops; it’s no longer biodegradable according to the FTC (Assuming your landfill is the “Dry Tomb” type).
However, if you happen to be lucky and your local landfill is a “Bioreactor landfill”, then paper, lettuce and a lot of other garbage will biodegrade.

Bioreactor landfills are designed to cause things to biodegrade and a bioreactor landfill is designed to capture biogases and turn those gases into clean energy. There are only a few bioreactor landfills in the U.S., they cost more to build then dry tomb landfills which is why there aren't more of them. Another reason involves all the environmental regulations which require years of paperwork and meetings before any construction takes place. Bioreactor landfills are more efficient and produce methane that when captured produces clean energy. It should be easier to build an environmentally friendly bioreactor landfill.
Landfill operators have told me that it’s easier for landfill owners to maintain status quo and as one operator told me,” We have land for another 50-100 years, then it’s someone else’s problem.”

There are exceptions to every rule(including FTC rules), and there are things that will biodegrade in a landfill environment. ENSO Bottles, of Phoenix, Arizona, an environmental company, has created a plastic bottle that will biodegrade in a landfill environment. The founders of ENSO realized that ultimately all plastic will end up in a landfill. With growing public sentiment against plastic pollution and the fact that more than 100 billion plastic bottles were ending up in our landfills, something needed to be done to reduce plastic pollution ......and quick.

ENSO Bottles supports recycling as a viable way to reduce plastic pollution and as way to conserve scarce natural resources. However, less that 30 percent of plastic bottles are recycled, the remaining 100 plus billion bottles end up in landfills, streams and oceans. ENSO realized that recycling alone was not solving the problem. ENSO's solution was their recently announced biodegradable plastic bottle which was tested and found to biodegrade in anaerobic/aerobic landfill environments, leaving behind natural elements of biogases and humus.

ENSO bottles with EcoPure™ have been tested and validated for the following:

(1) Recyclability through a third-party lab for ASTM D 1003 (Haze and Transmission).
(2) ASTM D 4603 (Intrinsic Viscosity)
(3) ASTM F 2013 (Acetaldehyde), Fluorescence Visual, and Visual Black Specks and Gels.
(4) ASTM D 5511 Standard Test Methods, a standard for biodegradation testing in anaerobic environments. Results clearly indicate ENSO bottles with EcoPure™ biodegrade through natural microbial digestion.


To request official test results contact:
ENSO Bottles at 866-936-3676 or Bio-Tec 1-505-999-1160.
To learn more about these solutions visit http://www.ensobottles.com/ and http://www.bio-tec.biz/.
To request official test results contact:ENSO Bottles at 866-936-3676 or Bio-Tec 1-505-999-1160.