Biodegradable PET (Image: advancedscientificresearch.in)
A Cradle to an End-of-Life Solution for Billions of Plastic Containers
The article “LVF Introduces BreakdownPET, an End-of-Life Solution for Billions of Plastic Containers” [1] gave rise to the tile and headline of this post and our commentary.
DalinYebo Commentary (and Food For Thought):
The idea of BreakdownPET has some (temporary) merits. However the article is silent on two topics that came to our minds:
- Landfill bio-degradation of PET will result in breakdown products such as methane or (at best, if methane is recovered/converted to) CO2, the so called Greenhouse Gases, which in this case a derived from oil.
- Currently, more and more PET is recycled and re-used (e.g. up to 90% in India; see Wikipedia for the stats and other info) in e.g. in fabrics or shoes [2], which are not necessary items that one would like to bio-degrade!
Therefore, BreakdownPET and PET recycling are important, temporary measures. Besides finding alternate, eco-friendly substitutes for PET, there is only one solution: All Polyesters must be made from sugars (biomass) and not from oil! (from “PET Recycle & Reuse – Only an (Important) Interim Solution!“):
- Sugar-derived polyesters can also be recycled and re-used.
- Sugar-derived polyesters have superior physical properties.
- Sugar-derived polyesters are made from CO2 that is absorbed by plants and turned into bio-carbons (sugars) which then become the starting point of furan (furfural as well as 5-HMF) chemistry. Therefore, if a BreakdownPEF is made, the resulting greenhouse gases are at least derived from bio-mass
A brilliant carbon-capture of bio-based CO2!
Tag: PET | Search: PEF | Explore: PEF Bottles from Furfural
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NB: The article below is posted ‘as is’, i.e. it has not been validated nor is its re-blogging an endorsement by DalinYebo
Source:
- 2019-04-29: omnexus.specialchem.com, TAGS: Green and Bioplastics .
- [1] See page 2 for original report
- [2] futurism.com: “For the Adidas x Parley shoe
two kinds of recycled plastic were used: PET, used most commonly for water bottles, and nylon from gill nets. For one shoe, about 16.5 old PET bottles and 13 grams of plastic from gill nets were used. “
