Sarpo Variety Pack: Axona, Blue Danube, Kifli, Mira, Una Seed Potatoes

Recycled, recyclable, re-usable and oxo-biodegradable

• Recycled
• Recyclable (carbon black free)
• Re-usable
• Oxo-Biodegradable  (NOT oxo-degradable)The new brown grow bag is made from recycled material, is carbon black free, meaning it can be recycled and is oxo-biodegradable.

It is important to distinguish between oxo-biodegrable, and oxo-degradable

Simply put – oxo-biodegradable (which these are) will leave no micro-plastics – they fully biodegrade.Oxo-Biodegradable Plastic

Oxo-Biodegrable means fully degradable plastic/polythene.
Oxo-Biodegradable Plastic  is ordinary plastic to which a catalyst has been added during the manufacturing process. The resulting plastic is then made into products like carrier bags, produce or courier bags, straws and other short-life/single-use items.“Oxo-biodegradation” is defined by CEN as “degradation resulting from oxidative and cell-mediated phenomena, either simultaneously or successively”. This describes OBP.

“Oxo-degradation” is defined by CEN (the European Standards authority) in TR15351 as “degradation identified as resulting from oxidative cleavage of macromolecules.” This describes ordinary plastics, which abiotically degrade in the open environment, but do not become biodegradable except over a very long period of time.
In the presence of oxygen, the catalyst accelerates the natural oxidation process and reduces the molecular weight of the polymer at a much faster rate, to the point where it is no longer a plastic and can be bio-assimilated by bacteria and fungi in the natural environment. The process continues until the material has biodegraded to nothing more than CO2, water, and humus. It does not leave fragments of petro-polymers in the soil, and it does not contain heavy metals.

It is tested according to US Standard ASTM D6954 by independent laboratories for degradation, biodegradation, non-toxicity and absence of metals in excess of the limits prescribed by Art 11 of the EU Packaging Waste Directive.

Oxo-biodegradable plastic does just what it says, the clue is in the name – It is called oxo-biodegradable plastic because it is biodegradable. The process has been described as follows by Professor Ignacy Jakubowicz, one of the world’s leading polymer scientists who has studied OBP for more than 20 years:

“The degradation process is not only a fragmentation, but is an entire change of the material from a high molecular weight polymer, to monomeric and oligomeric fragments, and from hydrocarbon molecules to oxygen-containing molecules which can be bioassimilated.”

Oxo-biodegradable plastic degrades, and then biodegrades in the open environment in the same way as nature’s wastes. If oxo-biodegradable plastic merely fragmented without biodegrading, CEN (European Committee for Standardization) would not have defined oxo-biodegradability as “degradation resulting from oxidative and cellmediated phenomena, either simultaneously or successively” and the American, British and French standards organisations would not have included tests for biodegradability in ASTM D6954, BS8472 and ACT01684 563338.

Oxo-biodegradable plastic has been studied by scientists for at least 20 years. Recently a former judge of the High Court in England was asked to review the scientific evidence, and he concluded:
• that OBP does facilitate the ultimate biodegradation of plastics in air or seawater by bacteria, fungi or algae, within a reasonable time, so as to cause the plastic to cease to exist as such, far sooner than ordinary plastics, without causing any toxicity;
• that “the benefit is obvious of reducing future contributions to the scourge of plastic pollution of land and sea”;
• that OBP is compatible with composting and recycling;

The above has been directly quoted from The Oxo-biodegradable Plastics Association website.