Preliminary assessment of the possibility of supporting the decomposition of biodegradable packaging

Lidia Niekraś,Ewa Moliszewska,B Kaźmierczak,A Trusz-Zdybek,K Piekarska,M Kutyłowska

doi:10.1051/e3sconf/20171700066

Abstract

This article presents a preliminary evaluation of the possibility of using grass biomass from a sports field as a compost ingredient which positively affects the degree of decomposition of the biodegradable wrappings. For 5 months the biodegradable bags were stored, both empty and filled with organic waste in the heap of grass clippings. After that period, fragments of the bags were observed under the microscope and then assessed the state of their decomposition. The results indicate that the biomass used favourably affected the process of bag degradation, however the speed of decomposition of the empty bags was quicker than the bags filled with the organic waste.

Highlights

Growing amount of the non-biodegradable waste materials obtained from the nonrenewable fossil sources, as well as their excessive storage in natural environment, induced materials industry to the search of the alternative solutions that shall be beneficial for both environment and consumer
It was decided to examine the biodegradable bags according to the producer instruction, and for this purpose they were filled with organic household waste
The best degree of biodegradation was observed for the clean bags composted in the prism of the pitch grass and for the bags filled with household waste and buried in the prism of the pitch grass (Tab. 1)

Summary

Introduction

Growing amount of the non-biodegradable waste materials obtained from the nonrenewable fossil sources, as well as their excessive storage in natural environment, induced materials industry to the search of the alternative solutions that shall be beneficial for both environment and consumer. European Bioplastics estimates that until 2018 their share in polymer materials will increase from 1.6 million tonnes in 2013 to 6.7 million tonnes per year Optimism of this forecast is being dampened down by the fact that the maximum growth of the production is predicted for non-biodegradable biomaterials such as Bio-Pe or Bio-Pet [2]. Organic waste is an appropriate place of lodging of the worn biodegradable packets During process of their liquidation, two basic biochemical treatment methods of waste are being used, i.e., composting or anaerobic digestion [1]. Composting, as the natural utilization, is the less expensive method of developing of the biodegradable waste It consists in transformation of organic substance with presence of oxygen and microorganisms into CO2, water and biomass [5]. Initial results of the observation of the range of researched plastic film’s decomposition, conducted with use of light microscope, are presented

A brief characteristics of the lawn grasses creating turf of a pitch

Experimental materials

Results

Conclusions