Are single-use bioplastics better for the environment?

Oooo this is a juicy one so strap on your thinking caps! Like 'natural' food 'bio' is an often misunderstood term - and bioplastic one of the most inscrutable. Bioplastics are made from plants, not fossil fuels, which sounds good.

But “bioplastics” is a term used interchangeably for two distinct things:

1) Bio-based plastics - that is an end product that is a plastic made at least partly from biological matter rather than fossil fuels and which is often made from plants

2) Biodegradable plastics - that is plastics that can be completely broken down by microbes in a reasonable timeframe, given specific conditions

Now is this is the confusing part - not all bio-based plastics are biodegradable, and not all biodegradable plastics are bio-based. And even biodegradable plastics might not biodegrade in every environment. Is your head spinning yet? 🤯

Let's tackle biodegradable plastics first. The trouble is that they don’t break down by themselves. They need special industrial composters. Sadly, this means most biodegradable containers end up in landfill or back in the environment, where they can’t break down properly.

And as for bio-based plastics, well as end products they are the same as regular plastic (as in they take hundreds of years to break down). Additionally, with no bioplastic recycling in Australia (or for that matter in most countries) bio-based plastics are basically a type of single-use plastic, that cannot be recycled. They are not circular either.

Both types of bioplastic also have to be made, transported and regenerated (or not as the case is for bio-based plastics).

At the end of the day, most bioplastics are designed to be thrown out. In Australia, they’re rarely composted properly. That means, despite good intentions, biodegradable packaging ends up generating waste and carbon.

So, THE ANSWER to the original question? When compared to a single-use container yes sure, a bioplastic that is biodegradable plastic is better, but it's not better than a reusable one. Now, we're off to get a smoothie bowl to soothe our confused souls.