PLA is a type of polyester made from fermented plant starch from corn, cassava, maize, sugarcane or sugar beet pulp. The sugar in these renewable materials are fermented and turned into lactic acid, when is then made into polylactic acid, or PLA.
One benefit of PLA, when compared with plastics, is that it is made from renewable resources. Rather than crude oil, PLA requires crops that can be grown year after year. What’s more, these crops draw down carbon when they are grown, so are pulling greenhouse gases out of the atmosphere to make PLA.
This means under commercial composting conditions PLA plastics will breakdown within twelve weeks, making it a more environmental choice than traditional plastics which could take centuries to breakdown into small bits, eventually creating microplastics.
Post time: Sep-23-2023