The challenges posed by biodegradable packaging to Ontario‘‘s blue box and organics systems have been highlighted at a number of events recently.

The Association of Municipal Recycling Coordinators (AMRC) reports that in October, the AMRC Materials Quality Workshop heard how products-particularly bottles-made from corn-based materials like polylactic acid (PLA) are causing serious concern among processors of plastic bottles.

PLA looks the same as polyethylene terephthalate (PET) but is considered a major contaminant. The material can also lead to fogging of high density polyethylene (HDPE) although is easier to separate. The resulting extra costs will ultimately lead to lower revenues and could even result in the loss of markets in some cases.

Early in December, the Canadian Plastics Industry Association (CPIA) held a briefing session on its Product Stewardship Guide and Commitment for Degradable Plastics. Fred Edgecombe provided a background to the technical aspects of the various types of biodegradable plastics, noting there is a significant difference between biodegradable, compostable, oxodegradable and photodegradable. The following week the City of Toronto hosted a meeting of stakeholders on the biodegradable packaging issue. Biodegradable bags are a big concern for the plastic film recycling markets, and, like corn-based bottles, are difficult to distinguish from regular plastic bags.

Speakers from Natureworks, which makes PLA packaging, said there is infra-red technology that can sort PLA from other plastics and, acknowledging the current lack of markets, said the company is looking at buying back recovered PLA for C$200 per tonne (HDPE is currently paying more than C$500 per tonne and PET is about C$370 per tonne.) The AMRC Markets, Operations and Contracts Committee will be discussing the issue and follow-up action at its meeting in January.