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Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm not sure existing paper cups would fair much better, would they?
The millions of drivers with disposable coffee cups in their cars would disagree.
Although it appears that replacing the plastic with wax might make it more recyclable/compostable.
The article isn't clear at all on how this compares to existing paper cups. Papers cups basically all have a wax coating on the inside so they don't absorb your coffee. Otherwise they'd obviously get soaked pretty much immediately. And wax is biodegradable. Has anything prevented a waxed bagasse cup from being made before? Does the bagasse+bamboo combo still require wax, or is the advantage that it doesn't? And if th…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> And the reverse supply chains to get containers back to producers put in place. That isn't as straightforward as it seems, they are returning what is a contaminated waste product. That needs to be kept very separate from the clean food-grade food & packaging deliveries, you can't just chuck a bag of waste in the delivery vehicles.
Soda and juice bottles are also a contaminated waste product, yet in European countries at least, recycling works fine.
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It's not the recycling, it's the sending them back through the same supply chain that would be the problem.
Reuse of glass bottles is not recycling (it's reuse.) And there is no problem, it works great.
Currently purchasing a full plastics thermoforming line. Not a chemist, but AFAIK current market available 'biostarch polymers' (AFAIK always PLA; which may be marketed as made from corn, sugar cane, etc.) are actually extremely environmentally unfriendly because of the massive embodied energy required to create the industry-ready polymer from the bio-waste material. Their single benefit is nominal biodegradability.…
> It is far better for the environment I suppose that depends on where the embodied energy comes from, no? If instead of oil or coal, it's all hydro or nuclear, then presumably the biodegradability is an overall benefit? Second, I'm curious... how actually does one measure the tradeoff between energy usage and biodegradability? The former would seem to be measured in reduction of CO2 output, while biodegradability is…
Bioaccumulation of plastics is certainly terrifying, but I just haven't seen evidence that it's the threat to civilization that climate change is.
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But a cup of water heated to the boiling point would long have cooled off by the 2 hours, so would this still count then?
The article said nothing about maintaining a boil in the test cups - presumably the water in the cups under test cooled as well, no?
PLA is known to get soft at near-boiling temps. Cups do start leaking and generally slump into a puddle. But this is purely an effect of the heat, it can handle the water just fine if it's cold.
This is unmodified PLA so I wonder if this isn't the same with the 'modified' stuff, or if the added fibres get soft when they get wet like paper.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Reuse of glass bottles is not recycling (it's reuse.) And there is no problem, it works great.
Use of glass bottles is somewhat controversial in that glass containers mean considerably heavier weight in transport, which in turn means that more energy must be burned to move those trucks. The introduction of plastic packaging immediately led to fuel savings in transport.
Bagasse is widely used for making paper plates, clamshell containers, and other disposables.[1] Cheap, biodegradeable, and non-toxic. What's new here? Smoother texture, perhaps? [1] https://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/Disposable-bagasse-bi...
Bagasse is short fibers that absorb water and oil readily. Adding longer bamboo fibers seems to increase tolerance for both. The stuff that's out there now wouldn't hold near-boiling water for a minute much less 2 hours, which is their claim.
Probably good for making IKEA-type furniture even more cheaply.
[1] http://article.sapub.org/pdf/10.5923.j.ijme.20120204.04.pdf
Currently purchasing a full plastics thermoforming line. Not a chemist, but AFAIK current market available 'biostarch polymers' (AFAIK always PLA; which may be marketed as made from corn, sugar cane, etc.) are actually extremely environmentally unfriendly because of the massive embodied energy required to create the industry-ready polymer from the bio-waste material. Their single benefit is nominal biodegradability.…
Is this product better? https://www.pulpac.com/ I know nothing about it other than the company's own claims, but if their claims are true then it seems interesting.
The article isn't clear at all on how this compares to existing paper cups. Papers cups basically all have a wax coating on the inside so they don't absorb your coffee. Otherwise they'd obviously get soaked pretty much immediately. And wax is biodegradable. Has anything prevented a waxed bagasse cup from being made before? Does the bagasse+bamboo combo still require wax, or is the advantage that it doesn't? And if th…