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What is PLA?
Our products are made entirely of PLA, or Polylactic Acid. PLA is a bio-based plastic made from from sustainable sources like corn starch, beetroot, or sugar cane. It was created as a natural alternative to replace commonly used plastics derived from petroleum. We are very excited it comes from a renewable resource, but it is often marketed as a bio-degradable and compostable material and it may not be as black and white as it seems.
Are bio-degradable and compostable the same thing?
Not quite. The main difference is biodegradable items can take an indeterminate amount of time to break down, as long as it does at some point. There is no real time limit, but the generally accepted time frame is about 100 years.
Compostable materials, on the other hand, will decompose into natural elements in generally the same amount of time as other organic material. You could put these in your compost bin with other food scraps or plant matter.
These terms are not interchangeable, as all compostable items are biodegradable, but not all biodegradable items are compostable.
Is PLA really biodegradable or compostable?
Yes, and no, but mostly no. PLA is technically compostable, but you can't just put this in your trusty backyard composting bin to turn into dirt. PLA (if left in a natural environment) will still take hundreds of years to degrade completely. It requires specialized heat and pressure to compost PLA which is only found in large, industrial composting facilities - not in nature. Many of these facilities have not started accepting PLA for recycling yet. Stay tuned as we update our recycling page with new content.