Will Reverte™ products create greenhouse gases such as CO2 and methane in a landfill?
Reverte™ does not contribute to methane build up. Methane is a gas that occurs in anaerobic conditions when carbon can only combine with hydrogen. Therefore, if there is no oxygen the Reverte™ product will not degrade. This is a big advantage over food-based biodegradable materials that, in the absence of oxygen, begin anaerobic decomposition, the product of which is methane – a greenhouse gas 20 times more damaging than CO2. The Reverte™ degradation process is an oxidizing system – if no oxygen is present the carbon and hydrogen remains locked in the remnants of the plastic and methane will not be emitted. CO2 is unavoidably created in all natural breakdown processes. The alternative is to keep the carbon locked up as plastic but that means the bag lasts hundreds of years – potentially longer. Reverte™ does not generate methane during degradation. CO2 is produced in small quantities.
