@_papapi_: What would a world look like...
…in which single-use products do not live eternally and – when wrongly disposed of - are not frequently of life-threatening plastic but rather biodegradable? What could our earth, our oceans and our lives look like, if single-use products would decay?
This is not some future utopia and not an inconceivable and incredibly remote scenario. It is reality. There are actually already wood-based cellulosic fibers of the VEOCEL™ brand which are completely biodegradable in water, the soil and compost. We carried out an experiment on this topic and will report more on this later.
At the current moment in time, the EU Commission is working on a new and clear definition of plastic, within the framework of the Single-Use-Plastics Directive. This is a good and immensely important step. Finally, politicians are daring to take one of those great and vital steps which are often very hard for us, as citizens, to take alone. Thus making it possible for the citizens of Europe to tread the same path.
However, although this step is good and vital, it could be just as fatal in the end. Since there is a danger that these wood-based cellulosic fibers are put in the same „plastic“ category as fossil-based materials due to their multi-phase production process. This would mean that these completely biodegradable fibers, which make such an enormous difference, would no longer be able to do this. If these wood-based fibers would be classified as plastic, they would no longer be part of the solution – and yet that is precisely what they are.
For reasons of hygiene alone, there will presumably always be areas in which single-use product are used. There will always be people who are basically prepared to do something for the environment but who do not wish to forgo convenience – and that is fine.
So it is even more vital that no obstacles are placed in the way of biodegradable materials– for example of the renewable raw material, wood. In fact, this should be supported. It should be encouraged. Since, if we return to the original question, what could the world look like without plastic waste in the oceans, these fibers of wood are definitely part of the answer.
And with our experiment we demonstrated that this really works. For our experiment, we buried wet wipes of fossil-based materials in our compost and some wet wipes of wood-based VEOCEL™ fibers. After only two days, we were able to recognize a clear direction.
After one week, the enormous progress of biodegradable VEOCEL™ fibers was clear. There was nothing left of the cloth of VEOCEL™ fibers whereas the fossil-based cloth looked the same as on the very first day.
For me but also for all our children, I hope that these COMPLETELY biodegradable cellulose fibers are NOT classified as single-use plastic.
I imagine a world in which packaging and single-use products are made of sustainable materials, which decay and do not take decades to do so. At the moment, I can smell our clean air and see the dolphins swimming in the lagoon of Venice. I know that all of that is possible. I know that there are eco-friendly single-use products as well as those of plastic. Namely, those made of sustainable materials such as of wood-based cellulose fibers. I experienced it myself during our compost experiment. I imagine what possibilities there can be in the future, when research continues in this direction.
But for all of this, there has to be a clear distinction between single-use plastic and completely biodegradable fibers based on wood.
#ItsInOurHands
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