Any material which can be broken down by living organisms is considered biodegradable. Some materials can be broken down only by weathering by the non-living elements of ecosystems – the sun, wind, water. These are not biodegradable. Cardboard is biodegradable, most plastics are not. There are biodegradable plastics made from corn, however these plastics also require some physical process to break down to assist with the degradation. Therefore some biodegradable products can still take quite a while to degrade. Also, as we’ll see in the definition for compostable, although some materials can be eaten by organisms, certain pollutants and hazardous chemicals used to create the plastics can still be absorbed by these organisms and persist in our environment.

 

When making a choice of what type of plastic you should select, consider that there are many varieties and strengths of biodegradability. The question to ask yourself is – how strong of a plastic would I need to do the job? Although buying in bulk for one type of biodegradable product may be cost-effective immediately, it may not be cost-effective if we consider say a 5 year timeline. We may still be contributing to the plastic waste stream if we are using products which take longer than their useful (to us) life-cycle to degrade. This is extremely important in the Caribbean context, where plastic could haunt a key revenue stream – tourism and also this can directly influence our health because of ocean pollution.

 

Consider this example of what is a “useful” life cycle - If we use most paper cups twice, we can physically see them begin to break down and so obviously we can’t use them anymore. However if we use a corn plastic cup, considering health implications, we can use it multiple times before it starts to break down. Even so, we usually tend to discard these cups before they start to degrade. Sometimes reusable items may be more sustainable than biodegradable products based on the situation and intended purpose. In other scenarios where we must consider the reliability, aesthetics and logic of certain materials – biodegradable products are the better choice than reusable items.

 

We can be certain that in all cases, biodegradable products are a better option than plastics and materials (Styrofoam) which persist FOREVER in our environment. These persistent plastics don’t only physically pollute our food sources and obstruct energy flow in ecosystems, but hazardous chemicals used in the process of creating these plastics also persist. These chemicals could result in cancer and they mess with our hormone balance (endocrine disruptors).