When plastic entered the design world in the 20th century, it was hailed as a wonder material—something strong, durable, lightweight, affordable, and malleable enough to sculpt into expressive, futuristic-looking forms. But the material lost its halo as the environmental consequences became apparent, plastic waste being one of them.
The design industry has been figuring out what to do about this for years. It’s tried recycling, reducing the amount of material in a product, developing bio-based compostable alternatives, or switching to something else entirely. But not all companies are able to easily switch up their production lines or find alternatives. Now, a growing body of research around plastic-eating microorganisms is reshaping how the industry is thinking about the material and its waste problem.
Heller—a furniture brand that produces high-end plastic furniture and home goods like Frank Gehry tables, Mario Bellini chairs, and Massimo and Lella Vignelli tableware—is now making all of its furniture with an enzyme that will accelerate the rate of biodegradation. The hope is that if its products wind up in a landfill or at the bottom of the ocean, that they won’t be there for long.
“Ten years ago, we were all drinking out of plastic water bottles and nobody really cared,” says John Edelman, the president and CEO of Heller. “But we learned that plastics are bad for the world.” The company began to make some products from recycled material, “but we wanted to get to the next level and become more sustainable,” Edelman says. “How can we be good for the planet and create incredible design?” He adds that the bioplastics and compostable plastics on the market now don’t work for Heller’s furniture because of performance requirements. Since everything is indoor-outdoor, it needs to withstand rain, snow, and the sun’s UV rays.
Here’s how it works: The powder enzyme, developed by a company called Worry Free Plastics, makes plastic more enticing for microorganisms to eat, essentially turbocharging a process that already takes place naturally. When the plastic is in a zero-oxygen environment, like a landfill, the enzyme activates and attracts anaerobic bacteria that break down its polymers. As they eat the material, they generate biogas and soil. If the plastic is exposed to oxygen, as it would be in everyday use, the material remains stable. According to Edelman, it will take approximately five years for a Heller product made with the enzyme to biodegrade.
Philip Myers, the cofounder of Worry Free Plastics, says its enzyme works in fresh and salt water, commercial composting facilities, and soil. A third-party testing company using ASTM methods (which involve placing an item in a controlled environment for 45 or 90 days, measuring the material loss rate, then calculating how long it would take for the entire thing to degrade) found that Worry Free’s enzyme could help a plastic bottle degrade, on average, in seven-and-a-half years and a plastic bag in five; the total time it takes depends on the density and thickness of the plastic and conditions in a landfill.
Real-world environments are not as controlled as a lab’s and the actual degradation rate could be different. “One landfill might be more potent than another one,” says Stephen Andero, the vice president of science and innovation at Worry Free Plastics. “After doing thousands of tests, no two are the same.” That said, the estimated degradation time is significantly less than conventional plastic. A water bottle, for example, takes an estimated 450 years to decompose. The enzyme can also be added to all polymer plastics, including bioplastics like PLA, which aren’t composting as fast as manufacturers claim.
Worry Free isn’t the only entity to explore enzymatic technology and the role microorganisms play in accelerating the degradation of plastic. In 2016, a team of Japanese scientists discovered a natural bacteria that eats PET plastic, which changed how the industry thought of managing plastic waste. Some researchers are now trying to engineer extra-hungry, plastic-eating bacteria. A materials science professor at UC Berkeley recently developed an enzyme that can make plastic “self-destruct” when exposed to heat and water. All of this research is leading to a boom in the bioremediation business.
Now, manufacturers are bringing this science into the products we use every day. To date, most of Worry Free’s customers have been manufacturers of single-use plastics—items like coffee cup lids and pallet film. Myers is just as eager to find more applications for his enzyme as Edelman is to address circularity at Heller.Most of Heller’s furniture is rotationally molded, a process that involves putting a powder compound into a mold then heating it up. As it heats up, it coats the mold, and when it cools, it solidifies into the shape of the product. In order to make its furniture biodegradable, Heller mixes the enzyme into the power compound. Nothing else about its production line changes.
“It’s a drop in technology,” Myers explains. “It doesn’t require them to change their equipment, their process—anything. It’s plug and play.”
Heller began adding the enzyme to its production line in November last year. It’s going to be in all of its rotationally molded LDPE products. As old inventory moves off the shelf, the biodegradable items will enter circulation. There’s nothing different aesthetically about the pieces, and the retail price is the same. “Everybody talks a big sustainability game, but research shows they won’t pay more for it,” Edelman says. “My goal is to do something that is sustainable and at the same price . . . We actually achieved our goal of not just using recycled products, not just being recyclable, but going back to the earth.”
While it’s not likely that people are buying $1,000 dining chair sets with the intent to throw them away, Edelman thinks that Heller’s adoption of enzymatic tech can spark more brands to do the same. “Sustainability is being applied to every product because the design firms are pushing it,” he says. They’re the catalyst.”
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