What is PLA in Many People's mind?
PLA, polylactic acid, is a biopolymer material typically made from the starch of plants like corn that can be formed into containers with similar properties and transparency to plastic. PLA is marketed as eco-friendly for its unique properties.
PLA is made from a renewable source, typically corn, which can be grown over and over without removing valuable resources from the Earth.
PLA is compostable meaning the material can be broken down into carbon dioxide, water, and biomass (soil) in composting facilities
PLA fully disintegrates and leaves no toxic residue, supporting plant growth in the soil
Deep down, What is more about PLA?
It is important to understand PLA is not a biodegradable material in just any environment, it is a compostable material only in industrial environments and shows very little mineralization(not biodegradation) in the majority of environments.
Natural Resources | Made from renewable plant sources (typically corn). Corn, unlike petroleum, can regrow continuously. Industrial agriculture, however, requires tremendous deforestation, water use, and land use change, all of which have adverse effects on the climate. Also decreases global food supply. PLA is made from GMO (genetically modified) corn. This corn is also grown using toxic pesticides. GMOs and pesticide chemicals cause adverse impacts on human health and the climate. |
Energy Efficiency | Huge industrial agriculture fields require tremendous use of water and energy for a batch of cups. PLA cups cannot be recycled in the same manner as rPET, so there is much more energy going into each cup’s production. |
Integration | Many PLA-product producing companies do not run or own the industrial agriculture fields or composting facilities from which their PLA products are derived and composed. This increases the need for heavy transport on trucks of Corn product and waste to and from facilities, increasing CO2 emissions. |
Culture | Promotes littering culture (PLA takes many years to “biodegrade” without help of composting facility – if left in environment has adverse impacts and can take 60+ years to biodegrade. |
Cost | Much more expensive to produce than raw PET |
Storage | PLA cannot be stored in a warehouse for a long time especially when the temperature and humidity is high. PLA will become brittle and easy to deform after being stored in such environment for a certain period of time. |
For more information related to PLA, Please check out another Blog we published some times ago.
Carefully choosing the right ECO Friendly product. It will be a pity if you spend more $$ to get something which is not useful at all.