What are the different types of degradable plastics?
There are mainly two types – oxo-biodegradable (oxygen) and hydro-biodegradable (moisture), sometimes called starch based. Both degradable solutions use oxygen to degrade (although Hydrobiodegradable will degrade anoxically also – producing Methane). The starch based products tend to degrade slightly faster but these materials are known not to be as strong as oxo-biodegradable ones (e.g. in bag form structurally they are too weak to carry liquor bottles). They meet the international compostable plastic standards that were specifically designed for them (ASTM D6400/EN 13432). Hydro-biodegradable products are designed to enter an industrial composting system. Starch Based (PLA) hydro-biodegradable products cannot be recycled. They should not enter the existing recycling stream as they have a totally different chemical structure that of conventional plastics. What is oxo-biodegradation? The oxo-biodegradation process uses two methods to start the biodegradation. These methods are photo de
