Kickstart: Biodegradable straws and a new kind of plastic ban

There's a new wrinkle in the old debate about banning plastic straws.

In early November, the city government in Fort Myers Beach, Fla., on the Gulf of Mexico, repealed its 2017 law banning plastic straws and replaced it with an ordinance requiring that straws given out in food service must be marine biodegradable.

What it means is that biodegradable plastic can now be used, along with paper. So if you find that paper straws get too soggy, this is for you.

The Fort Myers Beach decision sets up a debate that I wonder if we'll see at more city halls, as materials like castor oil-based polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) polymer are commercialized.

Some parts of the plastics industry, like packaging maker WinCup Inc., hope other cities change their plastic straw bans to allow for what they say are home compostable, biodegradable materials like PHA.

WinCup calls it an "ecologically superior" material to the petroleum plastic straw.

"Our hope is that coastal communities across the country will follow Fort Myers Beach's lead by ensuring their straw ban policies are as strong as possible by allowing ecologically superior alternatives to petro plastic, like PHA," WinCup CEO Brad Laporte said in a statement.

Florida's local straw bans have been controversial, and Fort Myers Beach's ordinance doesn't seem very detailed on defining what is biodegradable.

But another maker of compostable PHA straws, UrthPact LLC, notes that Charleston, S.C.'s plastic straw ban specifically allows plant-based materials that meet the ASTM D6400 or D6868 standards and carry certification from the Biodegradable Products Institute.

Biodegrability is a complex topic and for now, it seems like Charleston and Fort Myers Beach are in a minority among cities. But will this be the new trend in plastic straw laws? Time will tell.

As WinCup and UrthPact know, there's interest in biodegradables. There's also research money going in.

The state government in Massachusetts Nov. 12 announced nearly $1.2 million for a new center to develop biodegradable plastics at the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth. One of the goals, they say, will be to make "ocean-safe plastics."

"Institutions like UMass Dartmouth play a critical role in preparing Massachusetts' students for their future careers, teaching them how to tackle major global challenges such as plastic waste," said Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito, who spoke at the kickoff ceremony.

As plastics nerds like me know, the UMass Lowell campus is famous for its plastics engineering school, but this center will be housed in UMass Dartmouth's School for Marine Science and Technology.

The announcement says the grant will fund equipment to "address material biodegradability and its environmental impact, specializing in the ocean impacts, and advancing the development of new, environmentally sensitive products."

One thing that caught my eye: Those involved with the lab see a quick economic return.

The news release said that because of the center's work with partner companies Radical Plastics and Paramount Planet Products, they expect to directly support the creation of 75 jobs by 2023 and another 232 indirect jobs in supply chains.

"Project estimates call for positive economic impacts within two years of launch, noting the large potential market for biodegradable products being driven by consumer demand and new legislation aimed at limiting plastic pollution," it said.

And while we're on the topic of compostables, biodegradables and plastics, the city of Mountain View, Calif., wants to ban noncompostable packaging — including single-use plastics — from restaurants, fast-food outlets and coffee shops starting in 2023.

The Silicon Valley city, well known as the headquarters for Google, Intuit and other tech firms, is moving ahead on a ban on single-use plastics in food service. In a Nov. 10 statement, the city said straws and cutlery made from "biologically based polymers or compostable plastics" are included in the ban on petroleum-based plastic.

Mountain View said it wants food outlets to use compostable fiber-based material that is also free of PFAS chemicals, as part of its zero waste plan.

Maybe it's another city for WinCup and UrthPact to talk to about the potential of PHA.

Coincidentally, we saw this item Wednesday, on packaging maker Zume and robotics firm ABB striking a deal to put 2,000 robots in factories worldwide to make fiber-based packaging.

They say it's aimed at "accelerating the transition away from single-use plastics," but the release does note that any fiber product must be as "easy to mold and as cost-effective as plastic."

I'm sure the plastic packaging industry will have a few things to say about that, but it does seem like it's game on for finding new packaging materials.