The State of California has began to pass laws which promote "Green" products within the State.

Californians Against Waste began to side with corn lobbyists to pass the law SB 1454. This law allows only "compostable" claims within the state which currently must be corn based plastics. Recent studies show that corn based plastics create more ozone depletion through uses of fertilizers and pesticides which allow the corn based plastics to grow at faster rates. In the studies regarding the fertilizers farmers rejected more earth friendly alternatives due to the reduction of corn that would be grown. Composting Facilities The current bill which disallows the use of the term "biodegradable" altogether and promotes the term "compostable" or "industrial compostable" limits the disposal method of compostable plastic to compost facilities. Many cities and counties within the State have compost facilities, the issues are very few take these "compostable" plastic articles made from corn. The question is why? Compost facilities within the State require that the products generally break down within 90 days so they can move the compost out of the facility and onto the trucks. Current standards which have been passed by the ASTM D.20 committee which is ran by a non-profit organization called the BPI(A trade organization for corn based plastic companies) allows for the total breakdown of "compostable" plastics within 180 days. Another reason for the rejection of "compostable" products is due to the USDA, currently the USDA rejects all compostable products to be co-mingled with organic compost waste. Due to the restrictions from the USDA the current composting facilities do not have enough square footage to segregate the organic products from the inorganic products, so they reject the compostable products and forever these compostable plastic products are thrown into landfills across the State of California with no benefit of compostability. Corn Based Plastic Kills Ozone Current studies that have been performed by the University of Pittsburgh and the American Carbon Registry show that the fertilizers and pesticides that are used create N2O or nitrous oxide a gas which is a by-product of fertilizers is one of the most potent harmful gases known to man, 310 times more potent than Co2. The current legislation in California promotes the direct use of corn based plastics which allows for the depletion of our ozone layer due to the fertilizers that are being used by the farmers in Blair, Nebraska. Current studies show that the Ozone depletion from corn based plastic is 100X more than using synthetic based polymers such as polypropylene and polyethylene, both of which are waste products of petroleum(they would be thrown away if we didn't use them from the process of making petroleum), currently the Ozone depletion when using PE or PP is little to none. Due to these factors and the current legislation in California, all carry out bags now must be made with corn based plastics.

Alternatives to Corn

In 2009 alternatives to corn based plastic were popping up within the State of California which was causing competition for the corn plastic companies due to the alternatives being cheaper than their technologies. These technologies were gaining ground when they had testing data that showed a simple additive could allow for the decomposition of plastic. Due to the competition in the market the corn lobby began a full court press causing the "powers that be" to pass laws which ultimately is killing the environment for all of the United States. For more information on biodegradable plastic and the current legislation in California, please visit us at biosphereplastic.com.