Let’s hold a straw degradation game

Plastic is listed as one of the greatest inventions of the 20th century. Plastic is like a double-edged sword. While bringing convenience to us, it also brings a heavy burden to the environment.

In order to prevent white pollution, various countries have successively issued a series of regulations. At the beginning of 2020, China issued the "Opinions on Further Strengthening the Treatment of Plastic Pollution". By the end of 2020, the catering industry across China will prohibit the use of non-degradable disposable plastic straws.

At present, there are three main types of straws we have encountered on the market: PP straws, PLA straws, and paper straws.

10 inch mdf cake board

From the left: paper straw, PLA straw, PP straw

In view of the degradation performance of various straws, we organized a straw degradation competition.

We planted straws of three different materials in the soil to simulate the compost degradation of straws of various materials under natural conditions and see what happened to them after 70 days:

ⅰ-PP straw

12 Inch Cake Board
175gsm Kraft Sticker Paper

After 70 days of compost degradation, the PP straws were basically unchanged.

ⅱ-PLA straw

220GSM Paperboard
300g Ivory Board

After 70 days of compost degradation, the PLA straw did not change significantly.

ⅲ-paper straw

175gsm Kraft Sticker Paper
gsm-copy-paper1

After 70 days of compost degradation, the end of the paper straw has obviously rotted and degraded.

Game results :Paper straws won this round of degradation competition.

We make a simple comparison of the environmental performance of the three straws:

Item

PP straw

PLA straw

Paper straw

Raw materials

Fossil energy

Bio energy

Bio energy

Renewable or not

NO

YES

YES

Natural degradation

NO

YES but very hard

YES and easy

 


Post time: Aug-09-2021