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is HDPE actually biodégradable ? (en.m.wikipedia.org)
submitted 1 year ago by weshgo@lemmy.sdf.org to c/earthscience@mander.xyz
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Hi all, not sure this is the right place to ask... mods, feel free to do what has to be done if not.

I'm interested is "stone paper" a kind of paper made out of calcium carbonate (from limestone or construction waste) and HDPE (High-density polypropylene).

It's been advertised as a more eological solution for producing paper as it doesn't requires to cut down trees and uses much less water and chemicals in the process, compared to traditional paper.

My concern in about HDPE (that represent more or less 20℅ of the final product). Most companies advertise it as a "non-toxic biodegradable" plastic. But I can not find any reliable information to back this up.

I'm then inclined to think it is just green-washing.

but still I'm wondering if anyone could bring some insight about HDPE being biodegrade ...

thanks !

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[-] Luccus@feddit.de 1 points 1 year ago

HDPE can be recycled (as many thermoplastics can) but once it's in a matrix of other stuff (say calcium) it get's really difficult to do so. Also HDPE is not biodegradable. It can break up into microplastic, but I wouldn't call that exactly enviromentally friendly. Maybe if there are some added enzymes or something…

But you can just use unbleached, recycled paper. Paper is easy to recycle, doen't require a lot of chemicals (unless you bleach it) and is already one of the most recycled resources.

this post was submitted on 09 Aug 2023
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