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Biodegradable: A confusing but eco-friendly term

We are nearly there, Hooray! This is the last episode in the blog series eco-friendly material, and our final guest would be no one else but biodegradable. You might see this keyword being labelled quite often on the eco-friendly product and wonder what it means, and this is your chance to solve that riddle. In previous blogs, I have talked about composability, and I realised that a lot of people don’t understand the difference between these two. Let’s dive in to get to know this fellow. 

 

What is biodegradable?

Biodegradable refers to the breakdown process of materials. To be qualified as biodegradable, the documents need to be able to break down and return to nature elements. If products are advertised as biodegradable, it means that this breakdown process can be completed within a short period after disposal – ideally in a year time. 

 

What is the difference between biodegradable and compostable?

 

Compostable requires a suitable setting to break down while biodegradable can break down naturally disregard the environment.

The composting process tends to take less time to breakdown compared to the biodegrading process, usually within 90 days under the right circumstances.  

Compostable provides much more nutrient-rich organic elements for soil to grow new plants compared to biodegradable.

Compostable lies under the umbrella of biodegradable.  

 

Both are good alternatives compared to plastic, which turns hundreds of years to breakdown. Nowadays, compostable and biodegradable plastic is used to replace traditional fossil-based plastics. These plastics are better than the traditional one. Still, you need to be aware of how to dispose of them properly to avoid any negative impact on the environment, which might confuse consumers easily by mistreating them as regular plastic.

 

Store Eco Friendly offers a wide range of certified biodegradable products, suitable for both household use and personal use. When shopping with us, you won’t have to worry about what is right and wrong for the environment, but we have done that for you. We handpicked every single item ourselves to make sure that they would be the best option for our eco consumers. Also, we want to make sure that we can support other local businesses who have the mission with us of maintaining the natural beauty of New Zealand. 

Becoming eco-friendly can be quite daunting at first because it requires an effort to form new habits and acquire new knowledge to know what is best. Hopefully, throughout the series, we have solved all your mysteries around why specific material is favoured to use to produce eco-friendly products. I am sure by now; you are ready to go out there and confidently call yourself an eco-consumer.

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