SINGAPORE: You might think that switching from single-use plastics to biodegradable plastic alternatives is good for the environment but in Singapore, there are “no effective differences”, experts said.
They often end up in the same place – the incinerator, said Associate Professor Tong Yen Wah from the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the National University of Singapore (NUS).
Biodegradable plastic wastes make a difference to the environment only when they are buried in landfills, he added.
“In these situations, these plastic bags can degrade faster as compared to a regular polyethylene plastic bag and will not affect the environment as much. Overall for Singapore, it might even be more expensive to incinerate biodegradable plastics,” said Assoc Prof Tong. He explained that this is because some biodegradable options take more resources to produce, which make them more expensive.
The opinion squares with what Dr Amy Khor, Senior Minister of State for the Environment and Water Resources said in Parliament in August – that a life-cycle assessment of single-use carrier bags and disposables by the National Environment Agency (NEA) found that substituting plastics with other types of single-use packaging materials is “not necessarily better for the environment”.
“In Singapore, waste is incinerated and not left in landfills to degrade. This means that the resource requirements of oxo-degradable bags are similar to that of plastic bags, and they also have similar environmental impact when incinerated.
“In addition, oxo-degradable bags could interfere with the recycling process when mixed with conventional plastics,” said the NEA study.
Oxo-degradable plastics quickly fragment into smaller and smaller pieces, called microplastics, but don’t break down at the molecular or polymer level like biodegradable and compostable plastics.
The resulting microplastics are left in the environment indefinitely until they eventually fully break down.
he European Union (EU) has in fact decided in March to ban items made of oxo-degradable plastic alongside a ban on single-use plastics.
In making the decision, the EU said oxo-degradable plastic “does not properly biodegrade and thus contributes to microplastic pollution in the environment”.
Post time: Dec-22-2023
