Prohibition of single-use plastic is no more a fantastic dream of eco-activists. Several sorts of plastic, like straws or plates, may be confined to history books throughout Europe after approval of a corresponding ban by the European Parliament.
Ukraine’s taking on the issue is less resolute as of yet, however discussions are ripe that something has to be done about the light plastic bags which make up 60 percent of marine litter.
Though prohibition may seem like the only viable option at the first glance, it is hardly possible to substitute cheap and easy-to-use plastic bags with a much more expensive and wood consuming paper. Another point is that polyethylene may endure up to 12 recyclings in comparison with an evidently much less reusable paper. Recycling might have solved the problem for good, but for a plain fact: Europeans generate 25 m tons of plastic waste annually, of which a meagre 30% is collected for recycling. In Ukraine the proportion is unmeasurably worse.
Biosphere Corporation, Ukraine’s leading manufacturer of household and hygiene goods, came up with a greener solution: oxo-biodegradable bags that naturally dissolve in 2-3 years under normal conditions. Unlike cheaper technologies that imitate biodegradability and eventually turn a piece of plastic into smaller pieces of plastic, the British-Ukrainian collaboration resulted in a formula allowing waste bags to be eventually consumed by microorganisms.
Reusable PE pellets formed out of waste
The owner and founder of Biosphere Corporation Andriy Zdesenko notes that technologies his company applies make Ukrainian business ready to compete with international companies and attract a growing interest in Europe.
“What I can witness is a surge of interest from foreign investors looking for partnership on equal terms,” Andriy Zdesenko recently noted during his presentation at Dnipro Economic Forum.
Biodegradable waste bags production, Biosphere Corporation
Naturally, it doesn’t mean that limitation of plastic use shouldn’t be imposed, for there is no way humanity will ever recycle or biodegrade everything it has produced by now and keeps doing so. But the technology applied by Biosphere can be a sensible solution where a full prohibition would pose a threat to the comfort-cost-responsibility equation.
