The Dark Side of ‘Compostable’ Take-Out Containers

Zero waste doesn’t always equal sustainability

“What’s missing from that discussion is the impact of making these compostable items,” says David Allaway, senior policy analyst at the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality . “The fact that something is compostable is a useless predictor of environmental impact.”by the Oregon DEQ showed that “compostability is a poor indicator for determining the environmental benefits and burdens of packaging and food serviceware items” and that compostables introduces a set of trade-offs.

The environmental impacts of producing compostable products can be 10, 50, or 100 times higher, depending on the source materials, packaging, and production process, Allaway said. He added that some compostable items are low-impact while others high impact, but the industry does not provide detailed information on the particulars so consumers can make a choice.

And while food waste produces rich compost that restores soil fertility and helps store soil carbon, some compostable packaging doesn’t produce much compost at all. When it degrades in a composting facility, corn-based PLA — polyactic acid — just turns into carbon dioxide and water. Essentially, Allaway said, it disappears.

those recycle bins are so confusing, some places have 1, some have 2, some have 3, and they've got different wording or different pictures, and it's often hard to figure out what goes where sigh

people are careless, which I notice every time I go to my basement to take trash or recycling out and see someone throwing a grease-stained pizza box into recycling or dumping plastic in the paper recycling. It sucks.

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