Over the past few years we have all grown increasingly worried about our eco-footprints and the effects our choices make to our planet. Here at Aztec Diamond Equestrian, earlier this year we made the conscious decision to switch out plastic mailing bags to biodegradable polythene.
Typical, synthetic plastic mailing bags we see used every day will not decompose for several hundred years, our new mailing bags take no longer than 18 months to decompose naturally back into the environment when exposed to UV rays. Although this seems like a small change, if every company were to take these little steps away from one use plastics, we could make a huge difference to the world we live in.
Four benefits of using biodegradable plastics:
- Reduces Landfill:
Non–biodegradable plastics are most often disposed of in landfills, completely buried underground to stay hidden there forever. Using bioplastics eliminates the need for any landfills as these plastics wear down through the sunlight or are absorbed by the soil and converted into compost.
Less carbon emissions
- High Carbon emissions are notoriously dangerous to the sustainability of our eco system and have a particularly negative effect on global warming.- Using biodegradable plastic allows us to release significantly smaller doses of carbon emissions during the manufacturing process of bioplastics. The manufacturing of normal plastics releases about 4 tons of carbon emissions into the atmosphere whereas biodegradable plastics only tend to release about 0.8 tons of carbon emissions.
- Easily Recyclable
Not only do bioplastic bags take a lot less time to break down when disposed, they can also be easily recycled. Our bags are also non-toxic, which means if they contain less harmful chemicals- especially if they are burnt.
- Consumes less energy
Manufacturing biodegradable plastic does not involve recycling any fossil fuels, meaning the manufacturing process consumes significantly less energy than traditional plastics. Traditional plastics tend to require a lot more energy in terms of production as well as more burning of fossil fuels. In turn, the switch to bioplastics will reduce the amount of pollution in the environment.
To us, this was the first step of many conscious decisions we hope to make in the future, aiming to become a more environmentally friendly company all round. As a business we will be taking a look at our footprint and making as many changes as we can along the way to make a difference - after all small ripples make big waves.
