The 2020 Greenwashing Frenzy

‘Biodegradable’ and ‘Compostable’ coffee cups, straws, plates and cutlery. Ecofriendly? Or marketing ploys? These insults to sustainability have flooded the market as ‘green’ options. They offer uneducated consumers false confidence in an ‘ethical’ purchase as opposed to using reusables. In 2020 corona lead the world to a disposables frenzy. Bans on ‘keep cups’ at our local cafes for fear of transmission. Disposable take-aways only. Well-intended cafes fell for these eco-marketed landfill-fillers. We did too.

Sipping coffee in a labelled ‘compostable’ cup, as a consumer reading the advertisement you should be confident your home compost will break the cup down, right? Wrong. How can they say ‘compostable’ if it won’t break down in the compost? The cups are about as compostable as my worn steel cap boots. Try throwing some ‘biodegradable’ cutlery in your compost or backyard worm farm and as the weeks and MONTHS pass with no changes, you’ll be yelling false advertising. Turns out most compostable containers need Industrial composting conditions to break down. The chances of your local council having such facilities? Low. So off to landfill it is for your false-hope filled cup.

We had little other choice during 2020 isolation. Getting out of the house for daily exercise, picking up a take-away coffee and enjoying the brief, socially distanced, social interaction with baristas at a local café felt like a necessity for my sanity. I know I am not the only one. I bet ordering take-away from your favourite restaurant was a slice of heaven when you couldn’t eat in. Supporting local businesses felt like the right thing to do. The piles of plastic containers were a misfortunate by-product of a seemingly good deed. And if our chosen restaurants or cafés offered biodegradable/compostable plastics it seemed there was no harm right?

It’s a lie. Disposables are full of hidden secrets.

The unknowing consumer purchases ‘eco-disposables’ feeling positive about the environment. With reusable bans lifted, you may not even bother with your go-to ‘keep-cup’ if the all-too-good-to-be-true compostable/biodegradable cup seems like an equally ‘eco’ but easier option. Why carry a cup and cutlery in 2021 when these magic ones appear when you need then miraculously break down into rainbows when they hit your plastic lined bin? At least most are made from plants though right? Yeah. Most bioplastics are produced from corn. A non-sustainable monoculture (as all are) blasted with pesticides. (Goodbye bees), then transported to processing facilities (ALL the carbon miles) to be turned into biodegradable disposables (instead of food), where, in the case of most cutlery sets, they are then individually packaged in… you guessed it, plastic!

In 2019 the EPA stated that 1 BILLION disposable coffee ups are disposed of in Australian landfill sites every year. I can hear you screaming “A BILLION! Are you joking?!?” I wish I was. I truly do. We need single use plastics phased out, not replaced with other single use items. These products produce their own problems and are by no means the solution.

Regardless, consumer capitalism and mass marketing techniques keep us caught up in the purchase of disposables. Greenwashing has fooled many of us. Companies have jumped on the single use biodegradable/compostable bandwagon, to portray the image of turning ‘green’. Many of the companies truly believe they’re doing a great thing. But, the truth is, these fancy looking cups and plates are just a hipster way of pretending to care for the environment. They’re the ‘thoughts and prayers’ of wanna-be environmental activists that don’t actually want to take any action or give up their conveniences. ‘Compostables’ flooding the market boasting to be ‘eco-friendly’ solutions when the facilities to properly process these items barely exist is borderline fraud.

Some biodegradable plastics even break down to micro plastics! Who ever thought that was a good idea!? Oxo-degradable plastics are manufactured with a metal to allow them to break down when heated or exposed to light. They don’t truly break down. They just break into smaller fragments of plastic, micro-plastics, which are a nuisance to remove from the environment.

What can we do? These are the things I’m doing in 2021, and you can too.

1. Eating at a local food market? Pack your own cutlery, cup and plate/container.

2. Keep a water bottle in your bag, bike or car so you’re not tempted to buy water in a disposable container when you’re out.

3. Enjoy drinking through a straw? Pack a reusable straw. Ask for your drink without a straw.

4. Support your local café or restaurant by eating in when restrictions allow it. Pack your own containers in a bag to take left-overs instead of asking for disposable containers.

5. If you like your coffee on the go, pack a thermos or keep cup.

6. Check packaging and make sure anything claiming to be biodegradable/compostable is HOME compostable before considering it as an eco-option.

7. Influence your friends and family. It can be as easy as opening up a conversation to share knowledge on types of disposables and reusable, or packing an extra thermos when meeting a friend for coffee and a walk.

Don’t believe the hype over ‘eco’ disposables. Let 2021 be a clean slate to turn the disposables frenzy into a disposables boycott. Every person has an impact on the environment.

What if we do nothing and continue the 2020 frenzy into 2021?

Once your biodegradable/compostable marketing ploys reach landfill, as many do, they will break down under anaerobic conditions producing methane, a potent greenhouse gas. Throw them in the recycling instead and you may contaminate the load or interfere in the recycling process. Worse yet, you could dump your rubbish and let it reach the ocean where it can last for years, or even decades until it’s swallowed by hungry sea creatures.

Some companies are even producing single use ‘bio-cups’ with pictures of the very creatures our single use items work towards killing. How very thoughtful. There’s nothing quite like drinking an iced latte through a plastic straw smiling at the beautiful turtle artwork on your disposable single use cup before dumping it in your local waterway.

So next time you order without your reusable mug, make sure that’s an “extra hot double shot latte in a metallic oxo-plastic lined cup from the bee murdering corn fields of America...with just a hint of suffocated turtle”.

We all make a difference. Let your impact be positive. One shared article, conversation, and refused disposable at a time. You can do it.