• 06 Feb
• 2 Comments

They both mean ‘eco-friendly’- but the similarities end right there.

Although the words ‘compostable’ and ‘biodegradable’ are often used interchangeably, true eco-warriors know the difference. They’re actually very, very different. And although to most people biodegradable substances are seen as recyclable and safe to throw in the trash, the fact remains that they still do considerable damage to the environment. Biodegradable is not good enough, and this is the reason why.

Biodegradable substances are often plastics which have microorganisms added to them that help them break down faster. This means that instead of taking a few hundred years to break down, they will merely take a few decades. Nevertheless, in doing so, biodegradable substances still contaminate the environment. They pollute the soil, leading to plant toxicity and malnutrition in human beings; and in the ocean, they breakdown into microplastics that are consumed by fish and other sea creatures. Microplastics have even been found in table salt. Biodegradable substances include everything from toilet paper to human waste to animal bones to vegetables like onion and garlic. When it comes to garbage bags, biodegradable bags take about ten years to break down in the trash and can destroy the soil or water they are in. They are not compostable and only relatively eco-friendly when compared to other plastics which take longer to disintegrate.

Being truly eco-friendly, however, is about being compostable. This implies that when a substance breaks down, it serves to fertilize the soil or add nutrients to it, instead of the other way around. For instance, eco-friendly garbage bags, like those by Ecolastic, are 100% compostable; which means that they take merely 80-180 days to breakdown if buried in soil. How is that when compared to the decades taken by bags that are only biodegradable, or the centuries taken by bags that are neither biodegradable nor compostable? The 100% compostable bags from Ecolastic can also be burnt, leaving no toxic residue behind. Unlike plastic, the bags from Ecolastic only produce ash when burnt. These bags are 100% corn- starch based, which means that there is 0% conventional plastic used in their manufacture, making them 100% eco-friendly. But it gets better: even the inks used on the bags are heavy- metal free, and the bags are made completely from natural starches and vegetable oil derivatives. Care has been taken to ensure that Ecolastic bags leach no toxins into the environment at any stage of the composting process. They’re so fantastic that they can even be home -composted. Ecolastic bags have been created in collaboration with the DRDO and have also been approved by the ISO, the CIPET and the CIPB. An innovative and sustainable solution that aims to replace single-use plastic, Ecolastic will soon be available at your nearby supermarket. Make the right choice today.