These scientists are helping B.C. companies cut plastic pollution

A team of scientists in Vancouver is helping businesses in B.C. find more sustainable packaging materials as they try to curb environmentally damaging plastic waste.

Love-Ese Chile isco-founderofRegenerative Waste Labs in Vancouver, which tests plastics advertised as "compostable" tosee how they actually break down.

"These materials are ending up in landfills or in the environment, and it's a huge economic burden," the University of B.C. doctorate of chemistry graduate said.

Although the company's eight-employeeteam doesn't invent new materials, it researches and compares eco-friendly options for other businesses, Chile explained.

The company's mission is to "improve the circular economy for bio-based products," and to research ways to "manage these materials at the end of their life."

"How can we manage plastic waste more effectively?" Chile asked."And how we can make surethat instead of losing its value into the environment as pollutionwe're able to harness those materials and feed them back into the economic system?"

Plastic waste was the subject of this week'sUnited Nations Environment Assembly, which resulted in a bindinginternational agreement on plastics.

A growing number of organizations in Canada are exploring how to manage plastic waste better. Those include not just Regenerative Waste Labs, butalso EcoPackers, a Toronto firmthat converts plant waste into compostable plastic. In B.C.,Simon Fraser University's Food Systems Lab is also doing bio-plastic research.

A McGill University laboratory studying bio-plastics and micro-plasticsdiscovered two years ago that tea bagsmade of plastic can release billions of microscopic particles.

Plasticslabelled "compostable" or "biodegradable" don't often break down as advertised, except under specific industrial processes not widely available in B.C., Chile said.

Truly compostable tea bags

One of the laboratory's clients is Vancouver fair-trade tea company JusTea. Premiumloose-leaf teasare too bulky for traditional paper packets, so high-end teas now often uselarger plastic"silk" or "pyramid" bags.

Tiny plastics leached from such bags areworse than people might think, saidPaul Bain,JusTea'sself-described "tea captain";evencorn-based or food-grade nylon ones can pollute.

So JusTea tasked Chile's teamwith finding something better. They came up witha sugarcane-derived tea bag.

"This new bio-based tea bag actually is compostable," Bain said. "It can go through the current waste systemsall over Canada, because it can compost in three weeks."

Another lab clientis Associated Labels and Packaging, which wanted trulyeco-friendlybags, wrappers and lids. The lab hasrun"biodegradation tests" on everything from bio-plastic cutlery to toothbrushes.

Plastic in the food chain

Plastic pollution has long been a concern for scientists because of itsharms to marine life.

"In the end, everything which is washed into rivers and creeks ends up in the ocean," said Jutta Gutberlet,geography professor at the University of Victoria."The most serious impact is actually that the plastic, over time, will be broken down into smaller pieces and then it gets into the food chain."

Shehopes the newly approved UN global plastic pollution treatywill restrict new plastic manufacturingand encourage a "circular economy" torecycle all plastic, while offering fair employment to communities.

"The biggest problem is that we continue to produce new plastics ... and many of these new plastic materials are not recyclable or they are just not captured in waste management," Gutberletsaid in an interview fromBrazil, where she researchespeople who earn income by collecting recyclable waste.

"If they are not 100 per cent recyclable, if there is no solution found yet, they should not be put onto the market anywhere."

Whether through new technologiesor government regulations, a variety of approaches are needed to tackle a global crisis, Chile and Gutberlet agreed. Asan avid science educator, Chile said she's been inspired by the diversity of her laboratory team.

Having more voices at the table, and behind the microscope, is essential to their mission, she believes.

"The more different perspectives we have when reviewing a problem, themore the solution will bewholly applicable to different people in different places."

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