Fighting against the PLA "can't be recycled argument"

There is an understandable obsession with recycling , this is understandable because we have a legacy issue with plastics to deal with but it will come as no surprise to anyone, but we absolutely no that making something that is designed for one use out of something that causes a long term problem, never made sense when you can make it out of a material that benefits the environment.

The simple solution is make them from plants, it's sustainable and beneficial for the planet.

Let's look at recycling

One of the things people tend to forget about recycling is, it works for some materials, like glass and aluminium. but plastic recycling is a bit more complex.

Plastics can be recycled, but depending on the materials used, they can only be recycled up to 10 times before the material becomes too structurally weak, so recycling plastic is just recycling a problem, or to put it another way, delaying the inevitable disposal in landfill or Energy from Waste incineration.

The  UK Government (unlike more progressive countries like Ireland ) is very anti PLA (corn based plastics) , we know why this is as your Environmental Minister is no expert in polymers, so they rely on experts who feed them these same recurring arguments to muddy the water.

So are the current arguments are "PLA can't be recycled” and “PLA contaminates the waste stream” true

One of the things we see and hear a lot is part truth as full truth and PLA is no exception.

The questions if it was asked truthful is “can PLA be recycled in our current recycling system” and the answer is no, with our current recycling system the answer is no but the real questions are

1. “Can we recycle PLA” 
2.  “Should we recycle PLA”.

The answer are

1. Yes using a infrared sorting system you can sort the plant based materials from the fossil fuel materials.
2. This answer is purely our opinion, why recycle when you can compost, compost is sustainable, circular and adds positively to the environment from harvesting to disposal, there really isn't any downside, in fact we could use our packaging to replace the need for peat extraction for horticulture.
3.  

Let's look at recycling PLA

Let's sum up

So PLA can be recycled (although as mentioned we aren't convinced its the best option) , although it does suffer the same problem of weakening each time you need to recycle it, so you have to keep adding virgin (new) material.

Fossil fuel plastics when they come to the end of their useful life can only be sent to landfill or incinerated whereas PLA can be composted so they can grow more plants, so as I have already mentioned they are great for the planet , end to end.

So recycling PLA is certainly not the best option (although it is considerably better than recycling fossil plastics) but it is a better option than standard recycling.

Sources

Thanks to Total Corbion