Most eco-friendly innovations coming out today tend to have some sort of glitch that has to be ratified in order for it to be free from criticism. In this specific case, BioPlastics has indeed been correctly tagged as the better option for petroleum based plastics, but it still has some hang-ups. Even if one of its marketing points is that it is biodegradable!

If you are a consumer that could care less, it all ends there. But, for curious minds and people who want a deeper understanding, there is a point of criticism. In this case, being biodegradable is only the top of it all. There is still a process to make the plastic biodegradable and, for sure, there are elements in the biodegrading process that may need further evaluation before products such as BioPlastics can be 100% eco-friendly.

Many of the bioplastics are also contributing to the global food crisis by taking over large areas of land previously used to grow crops for human consumption.

The market for bioplastics, which are made from maize, sugarcane, wheat and other crops, is growing by 20-30% a year.

The industry, which uses words such as “sustainable”, “biodegradeable”, “compostable” and “recyclable” to describe its products, says bioplastics make carbon savings of 30-80% compared with conventional oil-based plastics and can extend the shelf-life of food.

(Source) The Guardian