Biodegradable

Benefits

Biodegradable waste is usually regarded as less harmful to human health and the environment than nonbiodegradable waste. Environmental pollution caused by discarding biodegradable waste products, such as human, animal, and vegetable waste, is normally rendered harmless by natural processes and so causes no permanent harm. Most biodegradable products and waste products can be used for replenishing the natural food cycle; such products can provide soil nutrients necessary for the regeneration of life. In urban, industrial environments, biodegradable waste products, normally well suited for natural cycles such as fertilization, are used less frequently than in agricultural areas.

Complications

However, because of human population growth and the steadily increasing levels of consumption, biodegradable waste produced in large quantities cannot be easily disposed of and processed and can cause severe environmental and health problems. Biodegradable waste such as cattle manure is produced in increasingly large quantities because of large-scale commercial farming targeted to meet demands of an increasingly wealthy population. According to research in garbology and waste management literature in industrial countries, most biodegradable (waste) products are destroyed in waste incinerators and processed together with nonbiodegradable waste. Because of chemical and often harmful substances used for sewage treatment, human waste is also mostly wasted. Household refuse analysis shows that the populations of industrial countries discard as much as 40 percent of biodegradable products, especially food remains, into mixed garbage containers.

Collection and Use

Urban biodegradable waste collection varies across countries. In most countries in Europe and in the United States, biodegradable garbage is collected or separated at waste processing plants infrequently and often only in the largest metropolitan areas. While statistics differ in each country and by the type of research conducted in the industrialized countries, there are virtually no statistics available on the use of biodegradable waste in developing countries. In many developing countries, biodegradable waste is dumped together with nonbiodegradable waste (such as plastic and chemical waste) in mixed landfills or burned in mixed incinerators. Aside from a few countries, notably in northern Europe, that try to promote use for the vast quantities [Page 75]of daily discarded biodegradable waste, few global efforts have been made to address the issue of wasteful waste treatment practices.

Product Design Sustainability

In their influential 2002 book Cradle to Cradle, William McDonough and Michael Braungart pioneered the notion of product design sustainability that is primarily based on the importance of biodegradable products as a solution for modern industrial waste. In the cradle to cradle model, all materials used in industrial or commercial processes may be placed into two categories: technical or biological (biodegradable) nutrients. Biological nutrients are similar to biodegradable products and can be disposed of in any natural environment and decompose into the soil, re-entering the biological life cycle without affecting health or the natural environment. Technical nutrients, which are non-toxic, nonharmful synthetic materials that have no negative effects on the natural environment, can be used in continuous cycles without being “down-cycled” into lesser products, ultimately becoming waste. In this view, both synthetic (but nonharmful) and biodegradable products can be either continuously “reused” or “re-entered into the (natural) cycle” without harming human health or the environment. While ecologically friendlier products, such as biodegradable washing detergents, gained in popularity among the industrial countries’ environmentally conscious middle classes, these do not have a universal marketing appeal. Commercial companies have recently stepped up production of many types of biodegradable products, including cups, plates, and containers. Unfortunately, these products do not follow through the whole processing chain and get dumped in mixed garbage containers. In the early 21st century, such products are almost absent from developing countries, where few special processing facilities for such waste are present.

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