Biodegradability in Fashion: What You Need to Know
Biodegradability in fashion has become a major talking point alongside terms such as organic, bio-based and fair trade. As demand for lower-impact products grows, brands increasingly use these claims to describe materials and packaging. However, the language can be confusing, and not every material described as biodegradable will break down safely in ordinary environmental conditions.
First of all, bioplastic or bio-based plastics are not necessarily biodegradable and do not have to be bio-based, but can also be fossil fuel based. Hence, biodegradable is not a good term to use when describing these materials, because even if they are technically biodegradable, they may only do so under very specific conditions that are not necessarily sustainable for the environment in the long run. Instead, if we want to look at packaging that can actually biodegrade, then we should focus our attention and buying behaviour to compostable packaging. Understanding biodegradability in fashion therefore requires brands and customers to look beyond a marketing label and examine the conditions needed for a material to break down.
The compostable packaging can either be ‘home compostable’ which is usually marked by a certification, or compostable only in industrial facilities. A lot of biodegradable or compostable packaging is based on PLA or polylactic acid, which is only industrially compostable and will not degrade in your garden compost heap or if you leave it lying around in nature. Furthermore, in most countries, there is no developed infrastructure for collecting and treating compostable plastics. This means that, in most cases, compostable plastics will be sent to landfill or incinerated. On top of that, if they enter plastic recycling streams, they could destroy a whole batch of recycled plastic. This is one of the main complications surrounding biodegradability in fashion, because disposal infrastructure does not always match the claims made about a material.
Compostable plastics may offer benefits in certain applications, but their environmental impact depends on raw materials, production, collection systems and whether appropriate composting facilities are available. When assessing biodegradability in fashion, look for the following:
- Looking for certified home compostable materials that you can compost at home and making sure these only go in the proper compost bins.
- Looking for materials with a certified high bio-based content, which are likely to have a lower carbon impact.
- if it isn’t home compostable, it can likely only go in your residual or general waste bin and not in the recycling bin.
The complexity of the topic of bioplastics and the terms surrounding them is something that most customers are unaware of and unfortunately most people believe they are buying something that is good for the environment and far from the traditional conception of ‘plastics’.
As well as spreading the word and creating awareness about bioplastics and how to recycle them, we want to shed light on the long way we still have to go in order to find a permanent solution to a world with less plastic in it.
Biodegradability in fashion cannot solve plastic pollution on its own. Brands must reduce unnecessary materials, clearly communicate disposal instructions and choose products that match the collection and treatment systems available to customers. Better infrastructure for reuse, recycling and composting will also be essential if fashion is to move towards a genuinely circular system.
Do you check whether packaging is home compostable, industrially compostable or simply labelled biodegradable? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
Information sourced on thecircularlaboratory.com
Featured image: sourced on canva.com
Image 1: Photo by Marcell Viragh on Unsplash
Image 2: Photo by Sigmund on Unsplash
0 Comments
There are no comments yet. Be the first one to post one!