A preliminary study of the degradation of selected commercial packaging materials in compost and aqueous environments

The paper presents the results of the degradation of two commercial packaging materials CONS-PET and BioPlaneta in the compost and distilled water at 70°C. The materials containing polylactide (PLA), CONS-PET 13% and BioPlaneta 20%, aliphatic-aromatic copolyester terephthalic acid/adipic acid/1,4-butanediol (BTA) and commercial additives degraded under the industrial composting conditions (composting pile or container) and in distilled water at 70°C in the laboratory holding oven. Distilled water provided the conditions for the hydrolytic (abiotic) degradation of the materials. Weight loss, changes of molecular weight, dispersity monitored via the GPC technique and the macroscopic surface changes of the tested materials were monitored during the experiments. The investigated systems show similar trends of degradation, however on the last day of the incubation the decrease of the molecular weight was higher in water than under the industrial composting conditions. The results indicate that commercial packaging materials can be degraded both while composting ((bio)degradation) and during the incubation in distilled water at 70°C (abiotic hydrolysis).