Courtesy The Coca - Cola society
Many companies are using plant - base packaging for their products , admit The Coca - Cola Company , which make the PlantBottle .
Cruise the foodstuff aisle and many products you ’re familiar with might appear to be the same tried - and - truthful products you ’ve always known . chance are good , though , that their packaging has gotten a makeover .
Manufacturers of democratic brands like Coca - Cola , SunChips , Stonyfield Farm and Newman ’s Own Organics have made the switch from fictile containers to works - based publicity .
According to market research house EL Insights , 27 per centum of products sell at major U.S. retailers were made with sustainable promotion in 2010 . That number is expected to increase to 37 percent by 2011 .
“ Environmental group have done a great job of telling companies that we do n’t like their toxic charge card and crude oil product , ” says Stephanie Barger , executive director of the Earth Resource Foundation , an environmental educational nonprofit organization . “ There is more awareness [ of the danger of credit card ] and efforts to subdue its use . ”
Those efforts look to be working . Stonyfield Farm judge that swapping the petroleum - base cups for its multipack yogurt products helped cut its glasshouse - throttle emission by 48 pct . Coca - Cola introduced PlantBottle , a recyclable bottle part made from sugar - establish grain alcohol that trim the company ’s petroleum usage by 79,000 barrels in 2010 .
But pliant containers are n’t the only software package receiving a flora - based makeover .
Frito - Lay start package SunChips in bags made from 90 percent works - based materials in 2010 . According to the company , the bags are compostable and will completely break down in an active compost pile in 14 weeks . ( If the bags are sent to the landfill , they will rot eventually , but the outgrowth is not as effective . )
Plant - base packaging is made from polylactic acid , or PLA , a compostable polymer made from starch , including Indian corn and sugarcane .
The advantage to PLA packaging admit the obvious transposition from petroleum to plant sources , which requires less energy and releases few greenhouse gases during the manufacture process . The harvest used to make PLA becharm atomic number 6 as they grow , which offer an additional welfare to flora - based packaging .
One of the bragging worry about PLA promotional material , however , is whether it subsist up to the eco hype .
Stonyfield Farm replace non - reclaimable polystyrene plastic promotion with plant life - base yogurt cups , but the PLA product are not reusable or compostable in most communities . accord to the Stonyfield Farm website , the engineering science to recycle the flora - based container is too limited to be feasible . compost is n’t an option either .
In ordination for PLA packaging to biodegrade , it need to be in a controlled compost environment , according to theBiodegradable Products Institute . Backyard compost bins do not fit the beak . PLA packaging require to be sent to large - scale composting installation to break down — and most people do n’t have access to such installation , which means plant - based packages end up in the trash .
Even if the cup could be composted , it might do more harm than ripe . A statement on the Stonyfield internet site reads :
“ … the sovereign review of PLA ’s environmental impact found that compost is not the secure option for dispose of the cup … it would release the carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) in the industrial plant - establish plastic ( CO2 absorbed by the Zea mays when it was grow ) back into the atmosphere where it would contribute to spherical warming . ”
The other issue is that most PLA packaging is manufactured from corn . accord to the USDA ’s Economic Research Service , up to 70 percent of corn uprise in the U.S. hold genetically - modified organisms , or GMOs , which raises concerns about environmental impairment , impacts on wildlife and the electric potential for GMO crop to cross-pollinate constituent crops .
“ It assume a deal of fertilizer , pesticides and water to grow these crops , ” Barger enounce . “ Switching to bio - plastics [ like PLA ] spread a Pandora ’s box . ”
Barger also care that manufacturing single - dish up containers , even if they ’re made out of flora textile , perpetuates a disposable culture .
“ We need to halt using unmarried - serving , disposable packages — no matter what they ’re made of , ” she says . “ Our goal is to work toward zero waste material , not change the character of waste . ”
