Is buying biodegradable products of any use when they are headed for a landfill?

Question

If I spend more money to buy biodegradable picnic things like forks, plates etc, and then I just throw they away...they go right into the landfill. Is this actually any better than just throwing away plastic into the landfill?

I do not have a compost pile, I know that I could compost them, but it is not an option as I live in an apartment.

Answer 1

Always a good idea to make your carbon footprint smaller.

Answer 2

Yes, because plastic never degrades and that takes up more room in the landfill, but biodegradable things will degrade quicker and that will make more room for more things.

Answer 3

Biodegradable things don't degrade in a landfill. They get buried. Biodegradation doesn't happen unless the material is turned and oxygenated, which doesn't happen in a landfill.

It's better to use recyclable plastic and make sure it gets to the recycler.

Answer 4

Well, if they degrade, then they won't take up as much room in a landfill. That's what the biggest concern is; that we're putting so much non-biodegradable stuff in landfills, which means the landfills get full sooner, and then we have to make ANOTHER landfill to hold more stuff, etc, etc.

I wouldn't try composting biodegradable plastic anyway. It may break down sooner than regular plastic, but that just means it will degrade in a few years, rather than a few centuries.

Answer 5

Biodegradable means that 100,000 years from now, that plastic fork will still be in the landfill, and your biodegradable fork will be long gone