In a Move Towards Sustainability, is PLA Truly the Best Option?

By Fallon Funseth

Earlier today, I went to Starbucks. Before my name was called, I thought of getting a straw — but ultimately decided otherwise. Upon receiving my drink, I realized I hadn’t needed one in the first place—the drink came with what looked like a clear version of a coffee shop lid. It turns out, in the beginning of 2018, Starbucks committed to phasing out its plastic straws worldwide by 2020, replacing them with a recyclable lid instead. If you’re from the Bay Area, this isn’t an unusual sight to see. With demand from consumers and local governments, many companies are attempting to buckle down on their waste goals and meet the needs of newly passed local ordinances. In fact, a plastic straw ban went into effect in San Francisco on July 1st, 2019, which prohibited the use of single-use plastic straws and compostable plastic straws made out of PLA.

PLA, or polylactic acid, is touted as a great alternative to regular plastic. Although PLA items are composed of biodegradable materials, this so-called “compostable” plastic can only be composted in certain facilities. On most PLA cups, bowls, or utensils, the fine print on the items reads: “Commercial facilities only, which may not exist in your area.” In order for PLA foodware items to completely break down, they must come into contact with water and temperatures over 140 degrees Fahrenheit. If these conditions are not met, little to no degradation will occur. This means that if these straws are littered, put into the wrong bin, or thrown into waterways, it is very unlikely that they will break down — creating the same harmful effects as regular plastic.

When considering alternatives to plastic, switching to PLA seems like a shift in the right direction. PLA items appear to offer the convenience of disposable foodware with none of the waste involved. However, because of their strict post-consumer breakdown instructions, they’re not as sustainable as they might appear to be. Looking towards San Francisco’s ban on PLA, it then becomes obvious that corporations, companies, and cities should be sourcing items (and straws in particular) that don’t just have labels or words inscribed on them saying “compostable.” These items should actually do what they promise without the fine print involved.

For many companies and businesses, aligning themselves with sustainability efforts and ordinances isn’t the main issue when retreating from single-use plastics. In fact, that’s the easy part, especially with handy purchasing guides that detail the acceptable types of foodware. Bans and attempts to better the environment aren’t new to San Francisco or Berkeley. The difficult part is implementing educational initiatives about PLA and compostable plastics, such as informing restaurants what they should be purchasing in order to comply withthe city’s ordinance.

“I have seen businesses and retailers tell me with full confidence, ‘Oh, I’m compliant, I’ve got compostable plastic straws,’ just because they saw the word ‘compostable’ and thought it was fine. Understandable, but confusing,” said Hillary Near, Commercial Zero Waste Analyst for the City of San Francisco, when asked whether or not it is easy to comply with the city’s ordinance.

Near also mentions that complying with the city’s ordinance requires a larger shift in culture. “There’s the aspect of training staff to not automatically provide a straw. That part is, I think a nuance that fewer businesses are consistently implementing.” Ultimately, Near expresses that the ordinance is one of many, but the end goal and what is to be mirrored in future ordinances with the City of San Francisco is that “reusable, is better.”

Unlike San Francisco, Berkeley has not phased out PLA.and tableware made from the material still is often offered by vendors on campus. Sage Lenier, a UC Berkeley senior and leader of the Zero Waste DeCal, agrees with Near’s point that education on environmental issues and materials like PLA are extremely important when it comes to creating a larger cultural shift towards a renewable and regenerative future.

Lenier acknowledged that it is problematic that PLA is still common on Berkeley campus, but it is not easy to implement a system-wide ban — we should work within the system that we are currently in to make changes. “There’s nothing in the United States that we could buy right now in bulk for thousands and thousands of people. There’s a market already for PLA, and we can only purchase,” said Lenier. “Cal’s official take is that we are hoping to move towards reusables, rather than simply just anything.”

Overall, Lenier says that there isn’t yet a push for reusables. She believes that once there is greater student awareness surrounding the use of PLA, greater action — such as banning PLA--will follow

Having a straw paired with your drink shouldn’t inherently have to be bad. Consumers should feel like they are making good choices when grabbing their favorite drinks, and businesses should be able to comply with sustainability efforts as well. By finding alternatives that work effectively without the need for extra caution, we can take single-use plastics and materials such as PLA out of circulation.

A solution to ending consumer waste already exists in reusables, and creating a push towards them is urgently needed. For instance, Vessel is a reusable drinkware company that supplies free stainless steel cups to several businesses in Berkeley and Boulder. Both Lenier and Near mention this company as an example of the kind of infrastructure that offers a solution to the larger waste issue at hand. Vessel provides reusable cups to consumers, with the expectation that they will return the cup to a Vessel location sometime in the near future. Their goal is to keep the cycle of reducing waste and reusing containers going.

However, Vessel is only a start given they operate on small local scales. Ultimately, collective action taken by the government, businesses, and consumers is needed to achieve a paradigm shift towards sustainability. This can and will make all the difference in a world where environmental issues are human rights issues.