I thought for a long time that PLA was biodegradable, but turns out it isnt really. It doesnt compost in nature, it just breaks apart into microplastic. It needs active heated industrial composting to actually degrade into something harmless.
Yes, almost all store bought items that are “bio-degradable” will not degrade in nature and require industrial compost facilities. You’ll often see warnings like:
For this reason, I started looking into trying out PHA (allPHA from colorfabb I think) which supposedly fully biodegrades. I nabbed a spool but haven’t gotten around to printing with it since I print pretty infrequently. If it goes well, I’d like to make it my default prototyping filament. (Currently I use rPLA which is just post industrial recycled, and algae fill PLA for non-mechanical stuff).
I thought for a long time that PLA was biodegradable, but turns out it isnt really. It doesnt compost in nature, it just breaks apart into microplastic. It needs active heated industrial composting to actually degrade into something harmless.
Yes, almost all store bought items that are “bio-degradable” will not degrade in nature and require industrial compost facilities. You’ll often see warnings like:
Biodegradable*
*where facilities exist
For additional “reading” on the topic, makersmuse has a good video about this: https://youtu.be/jCsnVp6mEbk
For this reason, I started looking into trying out PHA (allPHA from colorfabb I think) which supposedly fully biodegrades. I nabbed a spool but haven’t gotten around to printing with it since I print pretty infrequently. If it goes well, I’d like to make it my default prototyping filament. (Currently I use rPLA which is just post industrial recycled, and algae fill PLA for non-mechanical stuff).