Contain zero organic matter, and therefore cannot be considered bio-based, or a bioplastic. Additionally, oxo-degradable plastics are not made to be compostable. These plastics can degrade by adding 2% or less load factor, of a metal salt to a petroleum-based traditional plastic such as PE. This metal salt causes the polymer chain to shorten and fragment over many years, but the polymer chains can never reach the low molecular weight required to be recognized by microorganisms as a food source. Therefore they will never assimilate this plastic meaning oxo-degradable plastics never go away but merely fragment into tiny pieces causing further harm to our ecosystem.
« Back to Glossary Index
