| Larry's Bio-bag: |
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 1. What is Larry's new biodegradable coffee packaging?
We've developed new packaging for Larry's Beans 12oz and 1lb coffee bags using state-of-the-art technology that allows plastic to biodegrade in landfill, and even your home compost heap. It's a pretty new technology, invented here in the US, and we believe we are one of the first companies to be using it.
2. What's it made from?
It is made from regular plastic, produced from petroleum biproducts (obviously not ideal!), but includes an additive that helps micro-organisms to break it down completely into humus, leaving no harmful residues behind. We're no soil scientists, so we checked out that these claims have been tested to ASTM 5511 criteria the "standard test method for determining anaerobic biodegradation of plastic materials under anaerobic high-solids conditions." (ASTM is the American Society for Testing and Materials.) EPA tests have also shown that no dangerous chemicals or toxins are left in the soil once the bags are dirt.
3. What about ASTM 6400, the standard for 'compostability'?
Our bags were designed to meet ASTM standard 5338. (ASTM 5338 is the standard method for determining aerobic biodegradation of plastic materials under controlled composting conditions.) That means they biodegrade in about 9 months in the type of ideal conditions found in commercial composting facilities. However, they do not meet the ASTM 6400 standard which mandates that materials biodegrade in 180 days or less, so at this point we don't recommend adding them to commercial composting facilities. We LOVE the ASTM 6400 standard. The faster plastic becomes organic matter the better. However, to the best of our knowledge, no appropriate coffee packaging is available that would pass ASTM 6400. As Larry often says, sustainability is an ongoing path. We will continue to look into other possibilities for innovation with each set of bags we print.
4. How's your biodegradable plastic different from any other so-called "biodegradable stuff"?
There are other biodegradable plastics out there, but all have their own drawbacks. Corn plastics, like PLA for example, have gotten a lot of attention (we use them for some of our to-go mugs etc), but many folks don't realize that they need commercial composting facilities to biodegrade - if they are tossed in a landfill or even the home compost heap, they may just as well be your regular plain-old plastic. Without oxygen and high-heat, both of which are in short supply in most landfills we've spent time in, PLA plastics remain inert. And corn requires considerable energy inputs in its cultivation - in fact, some estimates suggest that corn plastics use more petroleum than their petroleum-based counterparts.
Other degradable plastics that have been marketed in the past have really only broken down into smaller and smaller bits of plastic - great if you want to keep roadsides clean, less so if you're a turtle who is [quite literally] sick of eating plastic.
Ultimately, we'd like to be looking beyond these to a truly cradle-to-cradle system, where nothing is thrown away. But in the meantime we're pretty pleased that this is a big step in the right direction. Remember though: Our larger bags are still reusable, and it always makes so much more sense to use something again than it does to throw it away. Why not pack the kiddies' sandwiches in your used coffee bags before you give em to the worms? (Give the bags to the worms that is, not the sandwiches...)
5. Where'd you get it?
We worked closely with NC-based plastics company to integrate their technology into packaging that worked for us and to bring it to market.
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