OUR MAILERS
They are made from certified compostable materials. These consists of the following components, corn starch, PBAT and PLA.
STARCH
A completely biodegradable polysaccharide that is bio synthesised by a range of plants. It is composed of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen.
PBAT - Polybutyrate Adipate Terephthalate
A biodegradable and compostable biopolymer, made from fossil resources. It is used for its high toughness, flexibility and quick biodegradability.
PLA - Polylactide
A biodegradable and compostable polymer made from raw materials such as corn, sugarcane, rice straw or tapioca roots.
The original colour of the compostable material is creamy and see through. When adding the color dye into the material during production, lighter colors tend to be more transparent than darker ones. For privacy purposes of our mailers, black is recommended as you can’t see the content inside, white being the second option as it’s closer to the raw material’s natural color.
If you do want to make your own branding with different colors such as pink, yellow, blue etc, please get in touch with us and we will work with you to get the results you want.
ABOUT COMPOSTABLE
Up to half of the average Australian’s bin consists of organic waste, mostly food scraps which will be transported to landfill where they rot without air and generate harmful greenhouse gases. We can avoid this by composting the waste at home.
Economically, this will save the council (and tax payer) money on waste management if we process our own compost at home.
Our bags and materials are all home compost certified so you can put them in your compost bin.
Remove anything that is not compostable material from the bag and add it to your compost bin. The bags can be considered as your brown materials (you need a brown and a green material to make a good compost!). Under favourable conditions, the bag will decompose within 90-120 days.
If you don’t have a home compost:
You can find people nearby (might be your neighbour!) who are doing this via
companies in Australia who are processing these via this directory https://www.aora.org.au/find-a-composter
or if you want to start your own, there are plenty of places you can purchase a compost bin and worm farm.
The materials are designed to decompose under favourable conditions in either a home or commercially compost setting. If they do end up in landfill, the bags will still decompose, however the timeframe is dependent on the environment. Unfortunately, the longer decomposition time will lead to further greenhouse gas production, which is more harmful than carbon dioxide.
People often get "biodegradable" and "compostable" mixed up but they do not mean the same thing. A biodegradable product may be broken down by microorganisms but this does not necessarily imply that the product can be converted into good quality compost.
Biodegradability and compostability rely heavily on the environment where the product is broken down. As each environment (compost, soil, water, …) has different temperatures and microorganisms, the speed of the biodegradation process may vary from one site to another.
For example, bioplastics which are biodegradable in an industrial composting plant (the most aggressive atmosphere regime) are not always biodegradable in water or soil, or even in a compost bin in the garden (owing to the lower temperatures).
