Me and my worms are always up for a composting challenge. Luckily we have Chiquita to provide one.
Latin Americanists such as myself have reason to distrust claims made by Chiquita, formerly the United Fruit Company, purveyors of fine tropic fruits and Guatemalan military coups. More recently, Chiquita was fined by the U.S. Justice Department for making large protection pay-offs to Columbian rebel groups, including the FARC and ELN. Even leaving aside the question of whether banana production for the world market is inherently an environmental problem, this is not a company that has a track record of respecting human rights in general (which for my part, I see as integrally linked to environmental rights).
Anyway, two months ago Don Gusano purchased salad from Fresh Express (a Chiquita subsidiary) which came in a plastic-looking container than proudly declared itself to be "eco-friendly," made of corn, and compostable.
I could hear my worms saying in their tiny, high-pitched invertebrate voices, "Bring it on, bitch!"
So I did.
On March 15, 2008, I cut this plastic up into palm-sized pieces and put it in my worm bin.
On April 30 -- about 45 days later, which is average for my bin -- I harvested that layer. I noticed the normal level of decomposition -- egg shells were still in tact, everything else was broken down. The "compostable plastic", however, looked about the same as when I'd put it in (except dirtier).
Well, far be it for me to question the claims of Chiquita's scientists. I'll give it another round and report back. Meanwhile, you all can take bets on how many YEARS it takes for this stuff to rot -- and how many governments Chiquita manages to overthrow between now and then.
Friday, May 2, 2008
Compostable Plastic, you say? Another Chiquita failure
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3 comments:
Heh heh. They never intend the consumer to test those things... I think these claims are designed to appease us as we seal the "degradable" object in a plastic bag and send it to the landfill among our other cast-offs. I'm sorry it didn't work (yet! There's still hope, I guess!), but I cannot say I'm surprised. Commendations for putting it to the test.
Hey, that package doesn't have the BPI logo on it!
Maybe you just have to crank up the acid level in your compost heap to like pH -259.
The three criteria used for awarding the "compostable" label:
• they must biodegrade at a rate comparable to yard trimmings, food scraps and other compostable materials;
• they must disintegrate, so that no large plastic fragments remain to be screened out; and
• they must disintegrate and biodegrade safely, so that the compost is able to support plant growth.
Seems to me the product you've mentioned has failed, failed, and then (for a change of pace) failed.
By those standards, yes, this is a definite failure. I assumed their standards were far lower -- that it would biodegrade faster than, say, a Styrofoam cup. Which isn't saying much, of course.
I think Ducks is absolutely right -- this is a sop to unwary consumers who want to buy "green" but don't actually compost themselves -- either because they are eco-zombies, or because they don't have the space, etc. Decomposition doesn't take place the same way in a compost pile as in a landfill, though, so if it doesn't break down here, it surely won't in the garbage.
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