What is bioplastic PLA?

Posted October 13, 2022

PLA bioplastics are made from polylactic acid, a transparent thermoplastic polymer made from renewable resources. Bio-based plastics such as PLA are derived from biomass such as corn, sugar cane, seaweed or even shrimp shells. They are biodegradable in industrial composting.

In recent years there has been an increase in packaging materials such as drinking cups, sauce containers and cutlery made from PLA as a sustainable alternative to petroleum-based plastics.

Products made from PLA are biodegradable in industrial composting, this means that within 12 weeks they are 90 percent degraded to particles no larger than 2 by 2 mm in an industrial composting facility. So these products do not decay naturally in nature.

The fact that these products are compostable also exposes an adverse effect of these products. At temperatures above 40°C, the material can already begin to deform, soften. Because many of these products are also used in catering establishments, and the temperature in a kitchen can rise considerably you should always take this into account. Even in summer, products exposed to sunlight may already deform or melt.

View the products in
our range of products made of PLA
.

Unfortunately, products made from PLA cannot go with the green waste but the waste handlers would like to have it with the residual waste. So the circularity of this material is not circular. Partly because of this, there has also been a growth in PET (plastic) or rPET (recycled plastic) products in recent years, just a plastic lid so but so this lid is circular because it can just go with the plastic waste. The rPET lids we sell from
Sabert
are even made within the EU from recycled plastic bottles from e.g. Coca Cola and other plastic products.