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phade is Making Single-Use Sustainable

The global plastic crisis is reaching a critical tipping point. For years, we’ve been taught to Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle to limit waste. Unfortunately, it’s not enough. We’re generating more trash than ever and it’s destroying our ecosystem. It’s time to replace single-use petroleum-based plastics with a sustainable solution. We created phade® with PHA to do just that.

The Global Plastics Pollution Crisis is Dire

Despite our best efforts to date, our landfills are overflowing, our waterways are contaminated, and 13 million tons of plastic are actively wreaking havoc on our ocean ecosystem. What’s worse? Experts estimate a 4X pile-on to the crisis by 2050 through even more consumption of traditional, petroleum-based plastic.

Plastics are the most ubiquitous form of litter throughout the world, and more than 90% of it isn’t recovered or recycled, with ~80% ending up in landfills or natural environments (Geyer et al. 2018).

The plastics industry is one of the top emitters of greenhouse gases according to the EPA. The ecologically worst offender is petroleum-based plastics, which generates diverse hazardous impacts both upstream and downstream. Petroleum-based plastics do not degrade in marine environments. They last over 500 years.

PETE

Polyethylene Terephthalate

HDPE

High Density Polyethylene

PVC

PolyvinylChloride

LDPE

LowDensityPolyethylene

PP

Polypropylene

PS

Polystyrene

OTHER

Other

What Can Be Done?

Market trends present a major challenge as the plastics market continues to expand, but it doesn’t have to be this way. Together, we can mobilize and solve our global plastics crisis.

While we must improve recycling and remain fervently committed to reduction and reuse, it is clear that if we are to truly avoid irreversible damage to our planet and our health, then we need to leverage alternatives to strategically REPLACE petroleum-based, single-use plastics into extinction.

PHA is Today’s Best Solution

In response to this crisis, development of ecologically viable bio-based alternatives is evolving. PHA is considered the most readily available biodegradable polymer among many in both aerobic and anaerobic settings.

PHA plastics are considered the most promising soil biodegradable materials, with 100% biodegradation in 90 days under ASTM D5988 standards.

Studies show that PHA plastics, products of which have been certified compostable by TUV Austria and The Biodegradable Products Institute (BPI), degrade rapidly in both marine & compost environments, and have a lower greenhouse gas profile than petroleum-based plastics.

PHAs are the only class of bio-based polymers that exhibit efficient marine biodegradation following ASTM standards compared to other polymers such as PLA, which does not degrade in such environments.

Combatting this crisis will take all of us working together. We developed phade® to give the world an innovative, functional solution to replace petroleum-based, single-use plastic straws. New technologies will play a major role in solving global plastics challenges, and the phade® straw is just the first of many PHA-based solutions to come.