Want your plastic material to be both RECYCLABLE and BIODEGRADABLE?
Most traditional plastics have always been recyclable, but not biodegradable. Recently, biodegradable plastics have been developed, but these are usually not recyclable.
Now you can get the best of both worlds with BioSphere additive.
By adding BioSphere at just 1% to your current plastics, you can make them biodegradable without affecting their ability to be recycled.
It does not change the physical properties of the plastic part, enabling products to maintain their normal shelf life and tensile strength, whilst benefitting from enhanced biodegradation
How quickly do products biodegrade with BioSphere?
With BioSphere, biodegradation of a plastic product is speeded up by up to 200 times. This means, for example, a plastic bottle which would ordinarily take 600 years to biodegrade in landfill could be gone in just 3 years!
A PET food tray was independently tested to the ASTM5511-11 standard with and without BioSphere.
As shown in the graph, the tray which included 1% BioSphere was more than 60% biodegraded after the first 12 months and fully biodegraded in less than 4 years.
The tray without was less than 3% biodegraded after 4 years.
Discover more about BioSphere
How does BioSphere work?
Polymers are normally unattractive to microbes and tough for them to eat. Adding BioSphere changes this:
- The material becomes highly attractive for microbes which means many more are on the surface of the polymer.
- Microbes excrete enzymes which react with the BioSphere element of the polymer softening the bonds in the polymer chain. This makes the plastic much easier for the microbes to eat and digest.
- Many more microbes with an easy to eat and digest food source results in a rapid biodegradation of the plastic.
Where does BioSphere work?
BioSphere works anywhere that there are active microbes present and does not need any special conditions to work. Environments such as landfill, compost and marine are rich with microbes which means biodegradation will take place there.
- Without the presence of active microbes, the plastic is unaffected. This means in-use properties of products are maintained and processing is not affected.
- What is left at the end? Just water, biomass, and gas the same as with any other organic matter which biodegrades. The gas produced can be collected and converted into clean energy at landfill facilities
