BRB w/ Nathan P – Bioplastics, Genovese Pesto & How to Avoid a Climate Disaster
What 'biobased,' 'biodegradable,' and 'compostable' plastic labels really mean, how to make fresh pesto at home, and Bill Gates' recent book on climate tech (#27).
Hi all,
Welcome back to BRB w/ Nathan P — a weekly newsletter featuring 💥1 Breakthrough, 🥘1 Recipe, and 📚1 Book on food & climate.
Before we get started, here are some highlights of food & climate in the news this week:
Improving soil could keep world within 1.5C heating target, research suggests (The Guardian). Better farming practices globally could sequester 31 gigatons of carbon a year (we emitted 59 GT in 2022). Agriculture cannot be ignored to get to net zero.
The ocean is turning green. Yes, it’s climate change. (Grist)
💥 Breakthrough: Bioplastics
It’s a sunny day in Bryant Park. Over lunch, I take a few mouthfuls from my ‘compostable’ fork and sip from my ‘biobased’ cup. I throw both into the trash. What actually happens to my fork and cup?
These are examples of bioplastics. Bioplastics are made from different plants like corn, sugarcane, potatoes, cassava, and even algae.
Bioplastics are rapidly growing in demand with consumer preferences. Companies like Danone and Coca-Cola already use Bio-PET in plastic bottles. Bioplastics now account for 1% of the 350+ million tons of plastic produced each year.
Today’s post will unpack what labels like ‘biobased,’ ‘biodegradable,’ and ‘compostable’ mean, when it is best to use bioplastics, and when it is best to avoid them.
Spoiler alert: they’re not a panacea for plastic pollution… yet.
Let’s take a look at what labels on single-use bioplastics mean:
🌽 Biobased: the plastic is made from renewable biomass or agricultural waste instead of fossil fuels.
🔄 Biodegradable: the plastic can be broken down by microorganisms like bacteria and fungi under natural processes, without human intervention.
🪴 Compostable: the plastic can biodegrade in a certain period of time and in certain conditions, as controlled by humans.
Let’s take an example of a plastic that fits all 3: polylactic acid (PLA). It is a common bioplastic that cups and cutlery are made from.
PLA is biobased since it is made from corn sugar (dextrose). PLA is biodegradable, though only through industrial composting. This means it can biodegrade within 90 days at an industrial composting facility, which operates at higher temperatures than home composting.
So if my bioplastic cup and fork from lunch make it to such a facility, it would biodegrade. However, if it ends up in a landfill, it will not readily biodegrade and create the same issues as a petroleum-based plastic.
It’s also worth noting that industrial composting facilities are hard to find – and assuming you find one, they may not accept compostable plastics since they are hard to distinguish from petroleum ones.
Around 45% of bioplastics are NOT biodegradable or compostable. Bio-PET for example, has the same composition as regular PET, it is just made from biomass instead of fossil fuels. Just like its petroleum-based counterpart, it will not readily biodegrade.
There is a halo-effect around ‘biobased’ and ‘plant-based’ products, and the general perception is that they are better for us and the planet. It’s not always true, and there’s a lot of greenwashing happening here. There’s a lack of awareness and transparency for consumers – it’s hard to tell where and how things are made.
In addition to the decomposition issue, the corn and other crops needed to produce bioplastics have a significant environmental impact. Corn takes a lot of land, water, pesticides, fertilizer, machinery, and other fossil-fuel inputs to grow. Using it for materials also diverts land from food production.
As mentioned earlier, bioplastics are only 1% of all plastics. A study found that if we wanted to replace all plastic packaging with bioplastics, we would need 54% of the world’s corn supply. We might not even have enough to replace all cutlery and cups.
With that said, there are many cases in which bioplastics make sense and are preferable to fossil fuels:
🥥 Bioplastics and other composites can be made from agricultural waste, like pallets from wasted coconut husks
💦 Bioplastics that can dissolve in water, like SoluBag that can dissolve in 5 mins at above 85C water.
🍱 Bioplastics to be used for food packaging, which are contaminated by food and cannot be recycled anyways, especially if they are home compostable
🎣 Fishing nets and foils for agriculture
40% of the plastic produced is for packaging, and much of it is avoidable.
What we need most is consumer sobriety – to avoid single use products, unnecessary packaging, and to use reusables consistently. I’m a work in progress myself – and sometimes find myself guiltily reaching for single-use cups and forks when need be.
I hope this provided some clarity on the bioplastic conundrum. Let me know of plastic innovations you’re excited about or reusables you love in the comments!
🥘 Recipe: Homemade Genovese Pesto
After having trofie with pesto in Cinque Terre a few weeks ago, I vowed to make Genovese pesto from scratch.
Genoa is the birthplace of pesto. Making it at home was both easier and tastier than expected – I can’t emphasize enough how much of a difference it makes in the flavor and texture.
Scroll down for the recipe, and get a peek at the unique & indulgent creation I made with this pesto…
If you make it, please send pictures :)
📚 Book: How to Avoid a Climate Disaster
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is known for its philanthropy to improve global health, sanitary conditions, and disease prevention – and is now devoting more resources to fight the climate crisis.
The Gates Foundation has spent $79B since 2000. For context, that is more than twice the budget of the World Health Organization during that time.
In How to Avoid a Climate Disaster, Bill brings his curiosity, meticulousness, and problem simplification capabilities to the climate problem. I enjoyed reading many of his book recommendations from his blog, and appreciated learning directly from him in this book..
The book is well-researched, nuanced, and approachable. Bill has 3 key conclusions:
To avoid a climate disaster, we have to get to zero greenhouse gas emissions.
We need to deploy the tools we already have, like solar and wind, faster and smarter.
And we need to create and roll out breakthrough technologies that can take us the rest of the way.
More specifically, there are 5 key categories he calls out where emissions need to drop:
🔩 Making things (cement, steel, plastic): 31%
⚡️ Plugging in (electricity): 27%
🌱 Growing things (plants, animals): 19%
✈️ Getting around (planes, trucks, cargo ships): 16%
🧊 Keeping warm and cool (heating, cooling, refrigeration) 7%”
Bill then explains how technology, policy, and markets need to work in tandem to change each of these. And he’s practicing what he’s preaching. Highly recommend to the problem solvers, climate optimists, and entrepreneurs out there.
My favorite quotes as a teaser:
The climate is like a bathtub that’s slowly filling up with water. Even if we slow the flow of water to a trickle, the tub will eventually fill up and water will come spilling out onto the floor. That’s the disaster we have to prevent. Setting a goal to only reduce our emissions—but not eliminate them—won’t do it.
I hope you’ll spend more time and energy supporting whatever you’re in favor of than opposing whatever you’re against.
To sum up: We need to accomplish something gigantic we have never done before, much faster than we have ever done anything similar.
Thank you for reading – BRB next week ✌️
🥘 Recipe: Homemade Genovese Pesto
Ingredients:
50g fresh basil leaves (~60 leaves)
120mL or 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
30g pecorino romano, finely chopped or grated
70g parmigiano reggiano, finely chopped or grated
15g dry toasted pine nuts
3g salt
Instructions:
Add the basil leaves to a bowl with many ice cubes for 5 minutes, and place the blades of the blender in the freezer. This will help keep the basil bright green.
Dry the basil leaves with a towel.
In a blender or food processor, add the basil leaves, chopped or grated cheeses, pine nuts, salt, and olive oil. Blend for 30s at a time, until reaching the desired consistency.
Serve with your favorite pasta or dish.
Using this fresh pesto, I present to you this pesto burrata fried chicken sandwich. It might be my most indulgent creation of the year… so far.
About Me
Hi there! My name is Nathan Paumier - I’m an avid reader, food enthusiast, and climate optimist. I started this newsletter after frequent questions on food tech, reading recommendations, and my secret recipes.
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god bless your hands