The biodegradable plastic industry has three types of products, Oxo-degradables, BioResins and BioAdditives.

These different products are useful in some ways an d in others they are not. Oxo-degradables: are useful in litter environments where heat, light, air and me chanical stress can force the plastic to break into small pieces that are not pl astic, but diols( diols are defined below 500 Molecular Weight, the average Mole cular Weight is much higher for plastic polymers). These products when broken do wn into diols can allow microbes(bacteria and fungus) to produce a saliva like p roduct to dissolve the diol, this will occure over a very long period of time be cause of the structure of the diols. Due to the process of breaking down the pla stic to a diol because of the need of heat, air, light and mechanical stress thi s breakdown is very hard to happen in a landfill. BioResins: are useful when placed into an industrial compost facilities, these s pecial facilities are very few, they require temperature of 140 degrees, most co mposting facilities operate at 110 degrees, because of this it is very hard for these Bioresins to decompose in normal composting facilities, that is why it is required to be placed in industrial compost facilities. Most BioResins are made with organic materials such as corn, sugar and algae. These Bioresins are differ ent in decomposition and the time it takes to decompose. Certain testing standar ds have been developed to test these BioResins including the ASTM D6400 that are specific to industrial composting and not commercial composting or home compost ing conditions. It is important to know that all compost facilities have oxygen so certain kinds of fungus can grow. BioAdditives: Many bioadditive companies are selling their products worldwide, t hese bioadditive companies test their products using the testing method ASTM D55 11-11 this testing method is for environments with no oxygen, this is a landfill environment. Bioadditives are useful in these environments. Bioadditives allow the bacteria and fungus to dissolve the plastic layer by layer. This makes the p lastic not break into pieces but to maintain the orginal shape of the product re ducing the weight of the plastic at a much easier way then the oxodegradable pla stic. Plastic does not like water, so this product allows many microbes to use t he special biodegradable additive compounds in dissolving the plastic and turnin g it into dirt. The microbes are only able to eat from the surface of the plasti c and are not able to eat from the middle of the plastic which allows for a slow er time in decomposition of the plastic. Biosphere Biodegradable Plastic is a combination of many of these technologies w ith a valuable cost difference, Biosphere plastic is cheaper. Biosphere allows t he microbes in both the compost environments and the landfill environments to de compose the plastic from deep within the plastic not just on the surface allowin g the bacteria and fungus to create large caves increasing the area that can dec ompose, rather then just the surface. This allows Biosphere s technology to work muc h faster then other technologies. Biosphere can also control the time it takes f or bacteria and fungus to consume the plastic. This allows Biosphere s biodegradable additive to be the best because of price and because of technology for the enha ncement of the biodegradation of plastic. Yes, plastic is slow at biodegradation, so we have formulated new technology to enhance the biodegradation of plastic at rates between 5 months and 10 years wit h testing to back up our products. The enhancement of biodegradation is based on a few intricate design scopes for manufacturers. Your product will decompose fa ster the lower the molecular weight of your product is, the more surface area an d the more hydrophalicity of the product. Don t worry about the hydrophalicity BioSp here s unique additive will increase the hydrophalicity of your product allowing for bacteria and fungus to grow around your product when placed in or around anaero bic or aerobic environments that are active.

Different technologies exist in the market, including Oxo-Degradable products, B ioResins and BioAdditives, each of these products work differently to decompose your plastic products, in different environments. Below we dig deeper into the s cience of these three separate products. Oxodegradable products: Oxodegredation occurs when minerals or oxides are placed within the structure of the plastic product, during decomposition technically t he plastic product no longer exist because of the air, light, heat and mechanica l stresses of the plastic it reduces the molecular weight to below the plastic o r polymer definition to a diol a diol is a smaller molecular chain of plastic th at is very sticky and can be regulated as per the California Prop 65. When the p lastic is reduced to a diol the ability for microbe loving organisms to consume the plastic occurs and the plastic product will be consumed over a period of tim e. The period of time is very hard to define as most oxo-degradable companies ar e focused on reducing the overall molecular weight and visual characteristics of the plastic product and it is very hard to tell over what period of time the di ol or your remaining plastic product is still in a landfill. Overall, Oxo-degrad able products are very useful in littered environments and will reduce the overa ll molecular weight and the visual product to smaller and smaller polymer chains , then to a diol, then to CH4, Co2 and Biomas and very small chains of oxides. Naphtha is also used when making the Oxo-degradable products, Naphtha is also us ed in making Polypropylene and Polyethylene. BioResins: Many different BioResins have been manufactured and utilized over the years to provide a solution for your quest on finding the best biodegradable so lution in the market. Many organizations utilize PLA, PHA s and other BioResins in t he market. The core technology is around taking sugars and making a resin out of those sugars to make products. PHA utilizes microorganisms to do the work to tu rn biomass into a resin that then can make bioplastics. The biggest hindrance of PHA is the cost in utilizing the product for generic products such as cups, bow ls, garbage bags and the like. Large amounts of research has been done over PHA allowing the processing to be much better then competition, but the costs are st ill overwhelming to be a fully cost effective solution. PLA is used by a wide va riety of manufacturers around the world, the problem with PLA is the running tem peratures needed to form most common applications require different uses of addi tives that negate the composting credentials of PLA. It has been written in many articles in regards to utilizing PLA as a source for medical applications that combining the PLA matrix with other BioResins to achieve a more robust biodegrad able product that can withstand moisture and higher heat in ambient environments slows the biodegradation rate by multiple times. So the decision is up to you, sometimes gaining one benefit will make you lose another benefit. Overall, PLA i s made from Corn, Utilizes large amounts of energy to produce and creates signif icant CO2 release into the environment when manufacturing. BioAdditives: Many different bioadditives are seeing market traction, most biode gradable additives work very similar to one another, they all make your product hydrophilic, water loving. When using a biodegradable additive there are separat e factors that come into place to achieve high amounts of enhanced biodegradatio n. 1. Molecular Weight of your current resin. 2. Homogenous Mixture. 3. Branching of the polymer. 4. Microbes that are attracted to the polymer and their special ingredients. Each different polymer has a set of microbes that will secrete enzymes for that

plastic, but some microbes will secrete enzymes allowing consumption of differen t plastic such as some polystyrene microbes will also secrete enzymes that work on polyethylene. While other microbes stick to just one resin type. This is very important when understanding your bioadditive of choice and selecting which bio degradable additive will work for your application. Some companies sell numerous products for individual resin types mainly for processing purposes, not designe d for biodegradation at optimal rates from our independent testing of these prod ucts. It is important to note that the biodegradation of each product will work differently, but will occur over a period of time and most will compare to one a nother after 30-40 weeks biodegrading at the same rate, but having different opt imal times. Microbes when secreting their enzymes have a tough time breaking cer tain bonds within the polymer chain and just like humans when building a buildin g may need to call in certain help to finish the job, Bioadditives work much lik e that allowing microbes to work together to break down a product. Molecular weight: It has been well documented through research that the molecula r weight of the resin is very important, if you have a very high molecular weigh t product do not expect a fast biodegradation rate, if you are mixing bioadditiv es that are not consistent with your base resin, it will also slow your biodegra dation rate due to a plethora of factors but mainly due to homogenous mixture of the plastic, inexpensive carrier resins from the bioadditive suppliers or a hom opolymer carrier resin will also slow your biodegradation. After many years of individual research we have found that bioadditives are surf ace dissolving products allowing microbes to dissolve the surface reducing the w eight of the plastic and the shape of the plastic over time. While BioAdditives do work very well, the surface area of the plastic is generally kept the same in most cases. We do however find that pits or holes on the surface may slightly i ncrease the biodegradation yet,it still is not allowing the microbes to fully dw ell within the plastic structure itself and explains why most items after testin g still look to be holding their form and shape. Biosphere Additive: Our product has been designed to overcome these hurdles. Bio sphere biodegradable additive has been formulated to maintain the best possible solutions for cost effective treatment of your plastic products to obtain the en hancement of the biodegradation of plastic. We have formulated our product offer ing to allow a true homogenous mixture within specific resin types and the best possible solution for other resin types. We add unique hydrophilic ingredients, with numerous microbe loving bonds into your plastic product(unlike any other pr oduct) attracting various microbes found commonly in landfill environments(unlik e other products). We have isolated microorganisms that are found within the lan dfill and compost facilities attracting them to your plastic so they can utilize the carbon for energy and utilize the small oxygen rings we place in so they ca n decompose your product. The additive is unlike other additives allowing for a deep intrusion into your plastic article as well as surface degradation so that the microorganisms have a broader area to consume. We have packaged this product together for a feasible cost affordable solution to the market space, competing with all technologies, Oxo-Degradable Products, BioResins and BioAdditives. http://www.biosphereplastic.com