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Introducing
PolyGreen Oxo-Biodegradable Plastic Bags
Plastics provide a number of benefits because they are generally
lighter, stronger, more durable, and more resistant to water. The
same properties that make traditional plastics an ideal material
for many uses, however, also tend to cause environmental problems
at the end of the useful life of these materials: The inherent strength
and durability of these materials allow them to persist in the environment
without biodegrading.
After consumer use, plastic bags frequently end up as litter in
the environment or in landfills. Because traditional plastics are
not biodegradable, discarded plastics represent a significant environmental
problem in either place.
As litter, plastic bags are a visible and widespread pollutant,
a threat to animal and marine species, and to human health. In landfills,
plastic bags add to landfill volume, hinder landfill compaction
and delay the biodegradation of discarded organic materials trapped
inside, thereby fostering the formation of methane, a harmful greenhouse
gas.
PolyGreen™
oxo-biodegradable plastic bags are an excellent “step in the
right direction” solution to these problems. “Floating”
as litter in the environment, oxo-biodegradable plastics can degrade
in a few months; and in the upper aerated regions of a landfill,
these plastics can degrade in two to three years.
Also, PolyGreen plastic bags are recyclable provided they have
not substantially degraded and subject to community recycling programs.
Recyclers around the United States who are knowledgeable about the
properties of PolyGreen bags accept them as part of the plastic
recycling stream.
Government authorities around the world have approved, and in some
cases even mandated, the use of OBP plastics out of recognition
of their biodegradable properties.
Results of tests
at Willow Ridge Plastics, in Erlanger, Kentucky, confirm that
bags manufactured by GP Plastics, containing a proprietary additive,
meet the specification of an oxo-biodegradable plastic.
Oxo-Biodegradable Plastics (OBPs) are plastics that biodegrade
through a two stage process. In the first stage, additives in the
plastic help to catalyze and accelerate oxidation. This aids in
the break down of polymer chains in the plastics to smaller and
wettable fragments, such that microorganisms can access the carbon
and hydrogen in the fragments. In the second stage, the remaining
fragments can biodegrade into carbon dioxide, water, and biomass,
leaving no plastic or harmful residues behind.
Confidential copies of PolyGreen White Papers
are available upon request by our customers.
Contact us today!
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