Tout sur le PLA et le CPLA - Vegware

Understanding Compostable Bioplastics PLA & CPLA Made from Plant Starches

At Vegware, we create our disposable catering products from a variety of plant-based materials. We utilize paper, cardboard, and pulp, but notably, we steer clear of conventional plastics.

If you're interested in learning more, visit our website set de couverts CPLA biodégradables.

Read more insights about food and bioplastics from NatureWorks, the world's largest PLA producer.

All corn is utilized, creating animal feed and numerous industrial products.

PLA - What Waste Stream?

Vegware's compostable catering disposables can biodegrade within 12 weeks in commercial composting, providing the perfect balance of microbes, moisture, and heat.

When access to industrial composting isn't available, used Vegware products should be placed in general waste. Vegware's take-out packaging is made from plants, not plastic, using renewable low-carbon or recycled materials, and these sustainability benefits apply regardless of what happens to them after use.

• Used Vegware products should NOT be placed in standard recycling bins that collect paper and plastics, as these materials go to a different type of sorting facility. Another reason is that food waste degrades the quality of mechanical recycling – this applies to all used foodservice disposables, even those made from “recyclable” plastics.
• General waste either goes to incineration or landfill.
• In a landfill, studies have shown that compostable packaging is inert and does not produce methane. PLA does not decompose in a landfill, but neither does anything else.
• Please do not discard - compostable packaging is not meant to decompose when tossed into the environment and is not a solution to marine pollution.
• Home composting conditions vary depending on household skills, so we make no claims about that, but there have been successful trials using hot composting bins.

Are you looking for eco-friendly cutlery for takeout food? You may have encountered some widely available options. Wooden cutlery from sustainable sources is an excellent eco choice. Additionally, CPLA bioplastic cutlery is popular among those who prefer the feel and texture of bioplastics. There are also outlets selling PSM cutlery, which is cheaper than CPLA and often described as biodegradable and plant-based. But what are CPLA and PSM cutlery made of? And how durable are these materials? Here’s our comparison of CPLA vs PSM cutlery.

Raw Materials

CPLA is crystallized PLA (polylactic acid), a compostable bioplastic made from plant starch (often industrial-grade corn). PLA is sensitive to heat above 40 °C, but crystallization raises its heat resistance to around 95 °C, while remaining fully compostable.
(The terms PLA and CPLA are somewhat interchangeable, essentially referring to the same material. You might also see this cutlery referred to as PLA cutlery. One key difference, however, is that CPLA is opaque, while PLA can be clear.)
CPLA (and PLA) is a fully plant-based and 100% renewable material.

PSM stands for plant starch material. However, PSM cutlery is not fully renewable and plant-based; it is a hybrid material, a mix of plant-based bioplastic resin and petroleum-derived plastic. This creates plastic with a high heat tolerance.
There is no standard ratio of plant-derived content to fossil-derived content, and cutlery can contain anywhere from 20% to 70% plant origin.

End of Life

CPLA is biodegradable and certified compostable. It requires large-scale or industrial composting conditions to biodegrade quickly. In a large compost pile, it will break down into harmless biomass within 180 days (often much faster - in ideal conditions, it may compost in under two weeks). As a certified compostable product, CPLA has been tested according to international standards, so you can be assured that it is genuinely compostable and can break down into healthy biomass.

PSM is not compostable. We've seen some companies claim that PSM cutlery is biodegradable. Unless these claims are certified to support them, they are at best unreliable and potentially very misleading. (From our perspective, we don't believe we've yet encountered any truly biodegradable or compostable cutlery made from a mix of plant starch and petroleum plastic in South Africa.)

Companies selling PSM often assert that it will decompose in a landfill within a certain time. Again, this seems misleading, as landfills are not designed to break down anything. Waste is compacted and contains a lot of suffocating plastic with very limited oxygen.

However, using plant-based materials is a positive move (they are renewable with a reduced carbon footprint), but mixing them with plastic and creating a non-compostable product means that the cutlery is destined to become waste.
Moreover, since PSM does not undergo compostability certification, it is not tested to guarantee that it meets international ecotoxicity standards.

CPLA vs. PSM Cutlery

CPLA vs. PSM Cutlery: Our Verdict

CPLA is 100% plant-based and renewable and entirely compostable. It offers excellent functionality, with a viable end-of-life solution. It represents a significant upgrade over conventional petroleum-derived plastics.
However, CPLA must be composted in large-scale composting facilities. Although the composting sector is growing (in South Africa and worldwide), we would like to see this growth accelerate significantly, so we can divert more food waste as well as compostable packaging from landfills.

PSM is not compostable and is therefore functionally the same as plastic cutlery. Hence, we do not consider it a viable sustainable option. Is it sensible to mix biodegradable plant-based materials with petroleum plastic to create more non-compostable plastic? We don’t think so.
PSM has no end-of-life strategy and is destined to become waste. Designing products for landfills only leads to increased pollution.

Unfortunately, we've long encountered misleading claims regarding cheaper, non-compostable bioplastic products. Have you heard of the combustion test? It's a way to test if your cutlery is truly compostable.

By designing and supporting only products that fit into a circular economy, we can contribute to our transition towards a waste-free society.

Contact us to discuss your needs for Solutions de Couverts Biodégradables. Our experienced sales team can help you identify the options that best match your requirements.