The Michael Stephen Column

LANDFILL

I am often asked about landfill, but I think it's a really old-fashioned and wasteful way to dispose of plastic waste. Plastic has a high calorific value, so if it gets collected but is unsuitable for recycling, it should be sent to a modern incinerator, like the one in Zurich. It will generate heat, which can be used to generate electricity or for space-heating. If it cannot be collected it will not persist in the environment if it has been made with a d2w masterbatch. See www.d2w.net

EXPERTS

I have been reading an article by Charles Moore in the Daily Telegraph saying that sometimes "professionals confuse their expert knowledge with their personal beliefs, using the former to confirm their righteousness about the latter. The syllogism is "We know a lot and we are good people, therefore we can do no wrong."

I notice this in the field of plastics, where there are people so passionately opposed to plastic that they have lost sight of the science, and are actually making matters worse. (Environ. Sci. Technol. 2024, 58, 6, 2716-2727 and LCA and Paper Bags )

They have also lost sight of the reason for concern about plastic, which is that it can lie or float around for decades if it gets into the environment, and don't want to know that this problem can be solved at little or no extra cost by making the plastic with a d2w masterbatch, so that it will biodegrade instead of creating microplastics.

NOVAMONT

I have been reading that Novamont (a producer of plastic which they advertise as compostable) are being investigated by the authorities in Italy for abusing their dominant position in the market. https://finanza.lastampa.it/News/2024/04/08/antitrust-avvia-indagine-su-novamont-ed-eni-per-shopper-bio-compostabili/MjE3XzIwMjQtMDQtMDhfVExC

I recall that in 2020 they tried to destroy a small company selling oxo-biodegradable plastic in Italy Court Ruling 2015 Marketing of Oxo Biodegradable plastic and it seems quite likely that their lobbyists were behind the EU ban on "oxo-degradable" plastic.

I think that the new Parliament to be elected in May should investigate how this ban came to be adopted by its Environment Committee without an impact assessment or socio-economic analysis, and without waiting for the report of the European Chemicals Agency, who were actually studying the technology. It is important to know whether there has been any corruption or improper influence.

DRAFT UN PLASTICS TREATY

I support the intent to decrease plastics pollution and prevent environmental damage, and I have written to UNEP as Chairman of the BPA.

The draft treaty is concerned to reduce, redesign, re-use, and recycle plastics, and to improve waste-management, but surprisingly there is no provision at all for the plastic which will for the foreseeable future get into the open environment, where it will lie or float around for decades. This is the main problem with plastic today, and it is this omission which d2w oxo-biodegradable technology is designed to address.

The draft is aimed to enable the development of 'safe' alternatives and substitutes that do not harm the environment across their life cycle. In my view oxo-biodegradable plastic is a safe alternative to ordinary plastic. It will decrease plastics pollution and prevent environmental damage by making the plastic biodegrade, leaving no microplastics behind. See attached "Why Biodegradable?" Why Biodegradable?

The BPA have pointed out to UNEP that plastic products are immensely useful, especially for the poorest people, as they are very effective for protecting their food and water from contamination and deterioration. There is nothing wrong with polyethylene or polypropylene except that it can persist for a long time if it gets into the environment. It is made from a by-product of oil which used to be wasted, so until the world no longer needs petrol and oil for engines it makes sense to use this by-product. Oxo-biodegradable technology can also be used to confer biodegradability on plastics made from crops such as sugar-cane.

We drew UNEP's attention to an important piece of research just been published from the Universities of Sheffield, Stockholm, and Cambridge, (Environ. Sci. Technol. (2024), 58, 6, 2716-2727) concluding that care must be taken when formulating policies so that they do not inadvertently drive a shift to non-plastic alternatives with higher GHG emissions. See also Paper Bags and LCA

The BPA supports efforts to improve waste management and to prevent the escape of plastics into the environment, but until these efforts are wholly successful throughout the world, we think that plastic products should be made so that they will not persist for decades, but will instead biodegrade and be returned to the eco-system by naturally-occurring bacteria and fungi. Indeed, the ONLY way to prevent plastic which has escaped into the environment from accumulating there for decades is to make it with oxo-biodegradable technology.

In 2021 the Environmental Protection Agency of the USA issued a Report on their research into pro-oxidant masterbatches stating that they "could significantly reduce the persistence of plastic pollution without creating undesired by-products." https://cfpub.epa.gov/si/si_public_record_Report.cfm?dirEntryId=353810&Lab=CESER UN Member-states in the Middle East have already legislated to require the use of this technology, which can be done at little or no extra cost by plastics factories anywhere in the world.

The type of plastic advertised as "compostable" will not solve this problem because it is tested to biodegrade in an industrial composting unit - not in the open environment, and a report from the University of Tokyo in March 2024 confirms that PLA will not biodegrade in the oceans. See https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-44368-8

It is well known that many of the microplastics found in the environment are created by the fragmentation of ordinary plastic when exposed to sunlight. These fragments are very persistent because their molecular weight is too high for microbes to consume them, and can remain so for decades. We have explained to UNEP that this is why d2w technology was invented. It is included in the plastic product at the factory and will cause it to degrade if it gets into the open environment, until it is no longer a plastic and can be biodegraded by naturally-occurring bacteria - See "Characterization of oxidized oligomers from polyethylene films" www.elsevier.com/locate/chemosphere

It is not possible to say exactly how long a particular piece of plastic will take to biodegrade in a particular place, but it is not disputed that it will be many times faster than ordinary plastic when exposed under the same conditions in the open environment. Queen Mary University say up to 90 times faster www.biodeg.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/QM-published-report-11.2.20-1.pdf

Will it fully biodegrade? Yes, tests have been done by Intertek showing biodegradation of 92.74% (The percentage required by EN13432 for "compostable" plastic is 90%), and no reason has been shown why biodegradation should stop before it is complete. Even if it did not fully biodegrade, it would still be better than ordinary plastic, which would have created persistent microplastics but would not have biodegraded at all.

I sometimes hear it said that biodegradability encourages littering, but this is more likely in the case of paper and cardboard, which are generally considered biodegradable. In any event, much of the plastic in the open environment has been carried there by the wind or escapes otherwise by accident. Insofar as it is deliberate, is it likely that the type of person who throws a plastic bag out of a car window will bother to read a label to see whether it is biodegradable? There is in fact no need to label the product as biodegradable, as it is intended to be used and disposed of in the same way as ordinary plastic.

We have reminded UNEP that this technology has now been studied for more than 40 years, and most recently in the four-year Oxomar study sponsored by the French Government, Final Report Oxomar

Michael Stephen

Michael Stephen is a lawyer and was a member of the United Kingdom Parliament, where he served on the Environment Select Committee. When he left Parliament Symphony Environmental Technologies Plc. attracted his attention because of his interest in the environment. He is now Deputy Chairman of Symphony, which is listed on the AIM market of the London Stock Exchange, and is the founder and Chairman of the Biodegradable Plastics Association.

Earlier Postings in this Column

All articles from Michael Stephen

Interview with Michael Stephen

Questions and Answers on OXO-Biodegradability

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The opinions expressed here by Michael Stephen and other columnists are their own, not those of Bioplasticsnews.com