A plastic that biodegrades sounds, on the face of it, a lot like a panacea to mounting plastic pollution. Brands and manufacturers get to keep using a robust, affordable and stable material, which can be harmlessly disposed of and decomposes naturally, while the likes of PET persists for up to 1,000 years.

And undoubtedly some have bought into this idea. Although biodegradable plastic currently only makes up around 1% of all plastics produced annually, the European biodegradable plastics market is expected to reach a volume of 2.6 million tonnes by 2023, up from 2.1 million last year, an increase of just under 24%.

“On average it takes three to six months for such plastic to degrade, but even at this stage, it isn’t the end of the process”

— Tim Llewellyn, Creative Structural Director at Drink Works

In an article for The Grocer our Structural Creative Director Tim Llewellyn discussed the difficulties that biodegradable options still pose today. The term ‘biodegradable’ on a pack often misleads consumers into believing that it will naturally decay over time, the same way a piece of fruit or veg might. But this isn’t the case. The select conditions needed for the material to decay mean the timeframe is massive. On average it takes three to six months for such plastic to degrade, but even at this stage, it isn’t the end of the process.

Read more about the realities of biodegradable plastics in the full article here: The Grocer