Degradable, Biodegradable or Compostable?! 🤔

Ever wondered what the difference is between Degradable, Biodegradable and Compostable, and what’s the best choice?

Read on to find out!

This degradable bag roll might appear to be a good choice with its earthy packaging and pretty butterfly... But it is not the case!

Degradable means the plastic includes chemical additives that allow it to break down a bit faster than your regular ol’ plastic bag. It means it’s going to disintegrate into tiny, tiny pieces of plastic – you may have heard the term “microplastic” floating around by now…. these are the plastics we end up consuming because they get into the seafood we eat 🤢 It’s under debate as to whether degradable plastic is in fact more harmful than non-degradable for this reason!

On to biodegradable – a slightly better choice, as this kind of plastic is made of mostly natural materials which can be broken down by bacteria – however it needs certain conditions to do so including warmth, so this is unlikely if this kind of plastic ends up in the ocean! It can also produce methane in landfill, so be careful how you discard.

And now to compostable – the best option on this topic. There are 2 types – commercially compostable and home compostable. These products are plant based and create no toxic waste as they break down, which doesn’t take long, and then they return to the earth as nutritious soil 💖🌱 in Adelaide we can throw commercially compostable products into our green waste bins which is easy peasy, and if you have a home compost for items labelled as such then even better – zero waste at the end of the day! Hooray!

Hope that helps and please feel free to drop any comments or questions below, we’ll do our best to get back to you with an answer as soon as possible!

Andrea 🌻