Biodegradable Products does not equals to environmental friendly

When you buy something that has the sign biodegradable on it, it doesn't mean that this product does not have an impact on the earth, often it is a marketing strategy more than anything.

If a biodegradable product end up in landfill, it will produce methane as they biodegrade, methane is a strong green house gas that warm up our planet. Notably, there are landfills that can collect methane gas generate and anaerobic digestion, and produce electricity, but many don't. In those cases, biodegradable products may actually be worse for the environment than ordinary trash.




In many cases however, biodegradable products are more earth-friendly, if they are deposed correctly. The key is to get biodegradable products into composting facilities, they can make the most value our of these materials.

According to scientists however, the best way to mince your environmental foot print, is to reduce how much you consume and throw away in the first place.






http://www.seeker.com/biodegradable-products-damage-environment-too-discovery-news-1765278803.html

Can trees cause pollution?

Having too much of something is often harmful, even trees.

In Japan, cypress and cedar trees are causing massive amounts of nitrogen runoff into local streams. Because algae feed off nitrogen, the amount of algae was significantly increased in these rivers, they produce natural toxins, and deal mechanical damage to other organisms(They sucks oxygen out of the water), therefore harming the environment.

However, it is not because cypress and cedar are naturally harmful to the environment, these are the same type of trees in Amazon forest and keep the planet cool. In fact, these trees are planted artificially for commercial use 50 years ago, at a time when Japan has a large demand for wood. However, later for a number of reasons including labour cost and legislation, Japan began to increasingly import wood.

This leads to an overabundance of trees which causes today's problem. Because older trees use less nitrogen than younger trees, and these forest are so full go older trees that block the sunlight access for younger trees, leaving large amount of nitrogen being washed down to the river and caused algae blooms.

Scientist are proposing that owners of these land should thinner the first and let younger trees grow.

http://www.seeker.com/excess-trees-in-japan-are-harming-the-environment-1769934569.html

A better way to dispose of the biodigester waste

PepsiCo's agriculture team in Turkey has been successful in developing the anaerobic digestion technology. This technology uses a mixture of potato peels, corn kernels and other ingredients used in the company's snack foods to generate electricity and fertiliser in the same time.

The biogas generated by that this anaerobic digestion technology covers approximately 35 percent of the electricity needed to run the company's two Frito-Lay snack food plants.



This process also was able to produce a type of more environment-friendly fertiliser, supplying to its more than 350 contract farmers in Turkey.

To produce the fertiliser, after the the anaerobic digestion process, PepsiCo plants ship the left-overs to an external partner, which composts it for about three weeks to dry it out. Next, nutrients are added and the pellets are produced, packed into bags and shipped to farmers.

"As the team was thinking about what to do with the sludge, another team was looking for new fertilizer approaches that were more sustainable. Together, they found this process." said Ece Aksel, general manager of PepsiCo Turkey.




https://www.greenbiz.com/blog/2013/11/25/pepsico-turns-biodigester-sludge-fertilizer

"environmentally friendly" product.

So I came across this article on the abc website:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-04-22/food-processing-waste-recycled-as-premium-bottled-water/7325790

Food processing waste recycled as premium bottled water AquaBotanical

This article states that"A watery by-product of fruit and vegetable processing, which used to end up in the sewerage system, is now being served at restaurants as premium drinking water."

"When fresh produce is condensed and turned into concentrate, he collects the water that is removed and purifies it so it is fit for drinking.While he says the process would work for most fruit and vegetables, his early aqua creations have come mainly from carrots and grapes."

Although I believe the intention is good--- to recycle a waste product or a by-product of another food-based application, it simultaneously created another waste: bottled water. As I mentioned before in my journal, bottled water is doing absolutely no good to the environment. 

These plastic water bottles take literally forever to decompose, it is worse if they got incinerated. in many developing country such as india, plastic bottles has become a major environmental problem, because many developed countries ship their waste to these countries, where only 20% of plastic bottles are recycled. 

I am not sure what price tag this product would be put on, but I would imaging it would be much more expensive than an ordinary bottled water, hence I doubt that profit didn't play a major role in his invention.