Oxo-biodegradable Plastics

The Biodegradable Plastics Association has made a submission to the new Government of Wales as follows: (For the full submission see https://www.biodeg.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/BPA-Response-to-Welsh-Updated-Evidence-17-6-26.pdf )

“We understand and sympathise with the Welsh government’s wish to protect the environment from plastic litter. We are concerned that if oxo-biodegradable technology were banned, Wales would be rejecting a technology specifically designed to protect its environment from the long-term effects of plastic which has escaped into the open environment, and from which it cannot be collected for recycling or anything else.

The experience of the past 20 years shows that plastic leakage into the environment is persistent and has not been prevented by existing policies even in the developed countries. Of course, if leakage is ever eliminated, then oxo-biodegradability will be unnecessary.

Recycling and circularity policies are effective for collected materials but are, by definition, incapable of addressing plastics that escape into unmanaged environments. Oxo-biodegradable technology addresses a different risk domain (unmanaged leakage), and should be assessed against that risk rather than against circular economy criteria. The policy question is therefore whether plastic products placed on the market should be designed to persist for decades after escape, or to degrade more rapidly if they get into the open environment

In the absence of reliable evidence that oxo biodegradable materials create greater environmental harm than conventional plastics, a prohibition on such materials lacks a rational basis, and would favour persistent pollution over mitigation.

The key point to remember is that oxo-biodegradable technology does not cause the plastic to break up into small pieces of plastic – it converts the plastic into non-toxic biodegradable materials, which are bio-assimilated by naturally-occurring microbes in the environment. It requires no special conditions. The process is initiated by sunlight and will then continue even in the dark, with access to oxygen. If collected during its useful life it can be recycled with ordinary plastic without the need for separation.

In this response, BPA documents are not presented as evidence in themselves but for the authorities and arguments they contain. Some eg the Oxomar report or the evidence of Dr. Swift to the UK Government are not BPA documents at all, even though they can be found on the BPA website.

Plastic products are very useful, and Life‑cycle assessments consistently show that plastics often outperform alternative materials, including paper, in overall environmental impact. https://www.biodeg.org/subjects-of-interest/life-cycle-assessments/ but if they escape into the open environment they can lie or float around for decades and create microplastics. This is the principal reason for public concern about plastic, and plastic waste that escapes collection remains a persistent and well‑documented environmental challenge.”