What’s happening right now?
Trash, garbage, refuse or if you prefer their euphemistic name – Municipal Solid Waste (MSW), comes from our daily utilized items like food scraps, furniture, newspaper to the haughty non-recyclable ones like plastic bottles, appliances and batteries. A staggering statistics revealed by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) showed that in 2009, the Americans alone accounted for 243 million tons of ‘MSW’ with an average of 4.3 pounds of waste per person per day. Generally, among the total quantity of trash produced, 33.8 percent is recovered and recycled or composted, 11.9 percent is burned at combustion facilities, and the remaining big, fat chunk of 54.3 percent is disposed of in landfills. And if we go by these quixotic yet true figures, we should be most worried about that last part bulk percentage.
Trends:
1. Greenbutts:
Greenbutts are totally biodegradable cigarette filters, made from organic cotton and natural de-gummed hemp, held together by wheat flour and water. According to the company,”When placed under a thin layer of soil, they sprout into green grass shoots or even blooming flowers.”
2. Google Embeds Wild Flower Seeds in Adsense Letter:
The pioneering Google has, well again ‘pioneered’ in sending cards made of recycled paper with wild flower seeds embedded in them. Quite ‘naturally’, they also encourage the receivers of the cards to plant them in the soil.
3. Plantable nursery pot biodegrades in soil:
Ball Horticultural Co.’s SoilWrap is basically a bottomless plant container that is bio-based, plantable and totally compostable. It was developed as a solution to address the massive landfill waste associated with horticultural plastic containers.
4. Biodegradable shoes become flowers and trees:
Unveiled at the Amsterdam’s International Fashion Week, the OAT sneakers are made entirely of biodegradable materials, with a concoction of dormant seeds imbued inside them. So when the shoes get worn out, we can just wet them in water and plant them to watch them sprout flowers. And on a serious side note, they are actually expected to work.
5. Vegetable Packaging Helps You Grow Your Own:
Ingeniously conceived by art student Ben Huttly, this convenient yet minimal packaging utilizes bio-degradable paper and cotton strings instead of plastic and rubber band. Even the printing is done by laser, and furthermore, there are seeds embedded inside the paper.
6. Biodegradable Raincoat:
Designed by ‘Good for Environment!‘, the Spud raincoat under the brand name Equilicuá, is a waterproof raincoat made entirely of bioplastic derived from potato starch and other natural resources. Moreover there are seeds imbued inside the coat, so that saplings can grow out of it, once planted in the soil after getting worn out.
7. Pangea’s Plantable Packaging:
This plantable packaging from Pangea of skincare, bar soaps, and massage & body oils is made from recyclable paper fiber, without the addition of glues and dyes. Seeds are included inside the packaging to literally contribute to our ‘greener’ future.
The Concept:
Biodegradable disposables are being gradually inducted into the food service industry as an outcome of the green driven technology. These products are generally made from corn, sugarcane, potatoes, paper fibers and other renewable vegetable matter, which allows the waste of these products to be naturally composed. To add more green to that, many manufacturers are embedding plant seeds in the material, so that the user can simply cover them with a thin layer of soil and watch a plant grow.
The Advantages:
Fundamentally, these green products can decompose quite quickly as compared to conventional items, and hence they don’t occupy the landfills for long. Moreover and most importantly, once disposed, they can naturally integrate with ‘nature’ itself to produce more greenery in the future.
The Impact:
As aforementioned, such products should actually be known for their lack of adverse impact on the environment. Furthermore, coupled with some innovative concepts like inclusion of seeds, such biodegradable, green products can actually enhance the fertility of earth itself.
