If the plastic around laundry detergent pods are biodegradable...why can't they come up with that concept for other things we use so much plastic for?
@Gloria Mitchell I have often wondered the same thing. There are plastics made from corn that are quite durable and biodegradable. I have never understood why they don't use them to make single-use products (like those bags everyone complains about). Durable plastics SHOULD be used for products required to be durable, like water and sewage pipes, but packing materials should always use the degradable stuff. Some "Styrofoam" packing is degradable and some is durable. Next time you get those "peanuts" in a package, stick a few in water and see if they go away. If they dissolve, you can use them in your garden or flush them down the toilet. Always test them first, however, as you never want to flush those durable things down the sewer or septic.
Dern! And I was just now thinking of trying to flush my whiffle ball down the commode just to see what would happen. . If it somehow got stuck, I remember that an M-80 always seemed to do something grand in my high school men’s room toilets. Or at least, that’s what I am told..............
Due to my adorable squirrels rearranging everything in my garden, I ordered some biodegradable netting and some biodegradable stakes to hold it down. They arrived today. The stakes are supposed to break down and biodegrade in 24-36 months, yet they appear to be durable plastic, in that it looks and feels like plastic to me. If they can make these cheaply enough to sell a hundred of them for twenty bucks, why aren't they using this stuff in K-cups, straws, flossers, and other applications. It's produced by a plastics company. Perhaps it's a matter of how to define biodegradable. Maybe it breaks down into micro-plastics, or very small pieces of plastic, and some people will say that's bad. But then, plastic is made from petroleum products and that will eventually break down further. -- Ecoduty Contractor Grade Biodegradable Stakes
The squirrels at my place would chew one of those stakes up in a day or two, if they took a notion. Maybe that's their definition of biodegradable. lol
But they don't take the notion. Since the stakes are on the edges of the netting and not over the area where the bulbs are planted, they take no interest in the stakes, and the netting discourages digging. I've used netting before, but this is the first time I've come across biodegradable stakes. My point in this thread, however, is why aren't they using biodegradable plastics in all of the stuff that they are complaining about, like straws, K-cups, flossers, etc. I don't know whether it can be made thin enough to produce bags but that might be an option, too. It's produced by an Illinois plastics company so I suspect that the government has some regulations governing claims that a product is biodegradable, which is what they claim. I read a Mother Earth News article complaining about biodegradable plastics but their complaints were centered on the fact that it didn't break down quickly enough in home composting environments, and I don't think that's the concern here. I see now that biodegradable plastic bags are being produced so rather than spending millions of dollars lobbying city and state governments to ban plastic bags, why aren't they campaigning for a biodegradable bag, and other products?
For small concentrated work, like nailing down model railroad track through the ties, I use my wife's small Ball Peen hammer. Note the nail heads on the ties...one nail every 4 inches. Hal
There has been discussion here on other threads about biodegradable plastics, and I don't know why they are not more widely used. Hone composters should not be the gold standard since most home composters don't really know what they are doing nor do they generally put adequate effort behind the process. I myself am lazy in that regard although I COULD do it properly if I weren't so lazy. We have a short season to compost here, so you have to get it done before it freezes solid, as you well know. I liked having goats for the reason that they could compost just about everything and do it year-round. As for the squirrels, netting wouldn't keep the little guys we have out of anything, as they are happy to chew through 3/4 inch plywood walls if they have a mind to do it.