I recently stubled across my first bottle of PLA filled with NZ water. It stated Ingeo on a label.
http://www.natureworksllc.com/the-ingeo-journey
very impressive. If only half of that is really working, then we have real opportunity. Of course the (traditional) plastics industry is trying to protect their markets and crying loud for waste stream contamination. Well, it can be sorted. And as NatureWorks clearly states: It a journey, not a destination.
It took long time to establish recycling schemes. It is much easier to extend the existing ones.
I rather want it to be recycled than composted. By composting, you are wasting the energy that went into it. Plus you create huge demand for corn and sugarcane. So I quite happily put PLA into the recycling bin and hope that one day someone will get it sorted and return it to some local factory for recycling. But in the meantime it might get landfilled and will decompose safely.
Sounds great, doesn't it?
Comments
I was assuming that there are certain problems with the introduction of a new material, looks like we have a catch-22 in the meantime.
Because we do not use that much, it is "contaminating" existing "waste" streams. That's why many people want to ban it. As you pointed out, it will become viable once we use enough of it. So the difficult bit is the interim.
We need to increase the use of PLA used in our society so that it becomes financially viable for recycling.
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