Earth Day 2021: Will We Ever Have Safe Biodegradable Plastics

Ever since the Chinese stopped taking the world’s plastic recycling in 2018, the reality of how much pollution plastics are contributing to the environment has become inescapable. For the last few decades, you could put your plastic waste into your recycling bin innocently thinking (and hoping) that it was being converted into something useful again. A couple of years ago, when my local recycling center sent a notice that they would no long accept plastics in their mixed-use recycling bins, I was shocked. As a devoted recycler, I feel so guilty every time I throw a plastic container out in the regular garbage bin.

Being in the natural food industry, I am fully aware of the zillions of foods that are now packaged in plastic from take-out meals to non-dairy milks to berry containers. I can’t seem to escape buying things in plastic every time I go shopping. The accumulation of plastics in our oceans and landfills is overwhelming; it’s a problem we need the combination of science with good government policies to help us address.

At Teeccino, I’ve taken a deep look into how to avoid plastics in our packaging. I can tell you that there are no good answers but some glimmers of light.

Fortunately, scientists have developed a bio-plastic polymer called PLA which is made from starch derived from plants like corn or sugar cane that is biodegradable – but only under certain conditions. We now use certified compostable tea bag paper made with this plant-based polymer. We’ve avoided plastics in your cup of tea, but we haven’t perfectly solved the problem.

Yes, the tea bag paper is biodegradable but not in your backyard compost pile or local landfill. Under those conditions, it will break down to non-toxic compounds but it may take a long, long time. You’re supposed to recycle the used tea bags in industrial composting facilities. If your community has a green waste program that gets turned into compost, theoretically you can throw your used tea bags in it. However, our Santa Barbara industrial composting facility says we can only put green waste, not used tea bags, in their bins.

Europe, where our compostable tea bag paper is made, has special bins for industrial compostable products. European countries are way more advanced in recycling than we are in the US because they have far less space to waste on landfills. Their governments are more proactive on waste disposal issues as a result.

If you’ve ever received a Teeccino tea bag that was open at one of the seams, we apologize. We made the decision to sacrifice perfectly sealable tea bag paper in favor of plastic-free tea bag paper that won’t harm your health or the environment. Although it is supposed to seal as well as fossil-fuel plastics, it doesn’t. We have triple the quality control procedures in order to catch unsealed tea bags, but at 100+ tea bags a minute rolling off our machines, it is hard to catch every single one.

A big success: Recyclable boxes

All Teeccino tea boxes and corrugated shipping cases are made from recycled paper and don’t contain any plastic. Our tea boxes are made with 70% recycled paperboard and our corrugated boxes are made from over 70% recycled paperboard.

An industry report from 2018 showed that while nearly 100% of commercial facilities recycle their paperboard, only around 40% of consumers do. Since recycled paper saves trees and thus reduces carbon emissions, please recycle every shipping and packaging box you receive. There was a big shortage of corrugated boxes this winter due to a lack of raw material with which to make them. We had to delay shipping Teeccino simply because we couldn’t get timely deliveries of our boxes!

Still to come: Plastic-free tea bag envelopes

This is a work in progress. It is the sealing layer in our tea bag envelope film that currently has a plastic polymer to heat seal. We are working with our film suppliers to convert the sealant layer to the same bio-plastic derived from starch that is used in our tea bag paper. However, we also have to deal with the metalized foil that protects Teeccino’s freshness. Some new films are available but they still don’t have the vapor barrier we require.

Coming one day soon we hope: recyclable and/or compostable foil coffee bags

We are testing new materials all the time as they become available for our foil coffee bags. As of now, nothing has the barrier and moisture seal that we require to keep bugs out of Teeccino and our fresh flavor trapped inside. Unfortunately, bugs are good at penetrating packages if the composite material they are constructed from isn’t thick enough. No one has yet figured out how to make a compostable or recyclable bag with the specifications we need. But they are getting closer and we are paying attention to any new developments.

Prediction: 10 years from now the majority of food containers will be recyclable or compostable

It has to come true. So many companies are working on the problems, new materials are being invented and solutions are becoming available. Here’s what we need to make that prediction a reality: Subsidies.

Yes, subsidies just like the solar energy industry received for years while it was under development. Look at the success of the cost reduction of solar panels that has now made solar energy competitive with natural gas. Subsidies allow industries to develop and reduce cost as demand expands. All the recyclable and compostable packaging now under development is more expensive than virgin fossil fuel-derived polymers. If manufacturers like Teeccino are to choose more expensive packaging options, the packaging industry needs the support of subsidies to lower the cost and make products using these new materials more acceptable to our customers.

Some up and coming success stories:

While our waste problems are daunting, it is important to look at successes that are on the horizon which give us hope that we can meet and conquer these challenges:

Purecycle Technology: I was so excited when I first learned about this company’s technology that I invested in it! They are using a technology developed by Proctor & Gamble to recycle used plastics and turn it back into virgin-grade polypropylene, the most popular plastic in the world. Polypropylene is used to make plastic shopping bags, cling film, and plastic bottles. Here’s their claim: “We view plastic waste as a renewable resource that can be used infinitely.” The big problem is dirty plastic. What if it doesn’t matter anymore that your yogurt container or hummus tub no longer has to be clean in order to recycle it? Wow! Check them out at https://purecycletech.com

Plant-based packaging for baked goods: We congratulate Flax4Life®, (https://purecycletech.com) manufacturers of delicious flax muffins, for their packaging conversion to PLA-based packaging in clear, see-through, bio-plastic containers. Like our tea bag paper, these containers will need to be composted in industrial composting facilities. Another reason why our government needs to help with funds to build these facilities all over the United States. Imagine if all the clear plastic containers now in use were to be converted to PLA and then composted!

Bacardi® Rum’s new spirits bottle: coming in 2023, Bacardi will be using a bio-polymer called PHA that is biodegradable and made from seed oil derived from palm, canola or soy. It will replace 80 million plastic bottles, a savings of 3,000 tons of plastic for all of its spirits bottles across the brand. Now to grow all of those seeds organically and regeneratively!

New Zealand’s first plant-based milk bottle: Fonterra®, a New Zealand milk alternative company, is launching the first biobased HDPE milk bottle. It is curbside recyclable and has one eight of the impact of fossil fuel-derived HDPE.

Coconut Bliss®: We love this brand’s delicious products! They switched their non-dairy ice cream pints to a plant-based, bio-resin polyethylene pint made from the husks of sugar cane, a waste product of the sugar industry. That’s a win-win!

Good government policies are needed to support compostable and recyclable packaging:

This is where the role of government can really help. Several plastic recycling bills were introduced into Congress during 2020 that would direct our government to set up a plan for plastic recycling and to reduce plastic waste. The Break Free From Plastic Pollution Act of 2020 introduced by Senator Thomas Udall, from N.M., and Representative Alan Lowenthal from California and the bi-partisan bill, The Plastic Waste Reduction and Recycling Act, introduced by Reps. Haley Stevens D-Mich. and Anthony Gonzalez, R-Ohio, are two of these bills. The latter directs the White House Office of Science and Technology to “improve the global competitiveness of the United States plastics recycling industry, ensure U.S. leadership in plastics waste reduction and recycling research, ensure U.S. leadership in national and international standards development, and reduce the harmful effects of plastic waste.”

Let’s support these bills by contacting our senators and representatives to become co-sponsors in 2021. With climate change finally front and center on our government’s agenda, we need to become active citizens to let our Congressional reps know that we want solutions to plastic pollution!