Corn to the Rescue

Overview

Objectives/Goals To see if Polylactic acid (PLA) biodegradable cups, knives, spoons and forks can be composted in a home compost pile. If this is possible America could reduce both it's oil dependance and landfill waste. Methods/Materials I used equal sized Polylactic acid biodegradable "plastic" dinnerware and petroleum based "plastic" dinnerware to compare the biodegration rate over a 90 day interval. The compost used was ground ficus tree, which was added every 10 days to a 90 gallon rotating composter. The daily outside temperature was documented along with the temperature of the compost pile by inserting a large thermometer. A camera helped document the stages of biodegration and a scale was used to weigh the cups on day 1 and on day 90. Results I was very pleased with my results. Although my Polylactic acid PLA cups did not fully biodegrade, they did show significant signs of biodegration and lost 12.8% of their weight on average, while the petroleum based plastic cups showed no signs of biodegration. Conclusions/Discussion I now know that PLA cups will biodegrade in a home compost pile within a reasonable time. In comparison, petroleum based cups take 700 years to start biodegration. I believe PLA products are the future, because they are just as durable as plastic, reduces our dependency on oil and can return to the earth naturally.

Competition history

• CSEF 2009 Environmental Science (Junior Division Only) · Entry J1208

Resources

• CSEF project summary ↗

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