<p>So they say PLA is biodegradable. But I still don't know how much biodegradable.</p>

<p>I live in a flat and we have composting trash can in the courtyard. However if I throw PLA in there and it does not decompose, neighbors are gonna be pissed since many of them are intending to use the soil for their balcony flowers.</p>

<p>So can I really compost PLA, or does "biodegradable" just mean it falls apart <em>eventually</em>, eg. in years? And <strong>if</strong> it decomposes, is it safe to use for plants?</p>

[{'answer_id': 3601, 'author': 'Dampmaskin', 'author_id': 1778, 'author_profile': 'https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/users/1778', 'pm_score': 0, 'selected': False, 'text': '<p>PLA products will take up to 6 months to degrade in commercial composting facility. In home composting facility, it may take longer time.</p>\n\n<p>Source: <a href="http://www.biogreenchoice.com/category_s/1866.htm" rel="nofollow noreferrer">http://www.biogreenchoice.com/category_s/1866.htm</a></p>\n'}, {'answer_id': 3604, 'author': 'Carl Witthoft', 'author_id': 2191, 'author_profile': 'https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/users/2191', 'pm_score': 4, 'selected': True, 'text': '<p>This question has been asked on just about every forum out there.  Here\'s one example from <a href="https://www.filabot.com/blogs/news/57233604-the-misleading-biodegradability-of-pla" rel="nofollow noreferrer">filabot.com</a> .</p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>The reality however, is that this process will take several hundred\nyears in a typical landfill. To biodegrade, PLA requires a laundry\nlist of conditions to effectively break down. Specifically - oxygen, a\ntemperature of 140+ degrees <em>[Fahrenheit -- ed note]</em>, and a 2/3 cocktail of organic substrate.\nCollectively, these are absent in any scenario outside of industrial\ncomposting facilities.</p>\n</blockquote>\n<p>I found similar comments -- tho\' with perhaps slightly lower temperatures elsewhere.</p>\n'}, {'answer_id': 16748, 'author': 'Greenonline', 'author_id': 4762, 'author_profile': 'https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/users/4762', 'pm_score': 2, 'selected': False, 'text': '<p><strong>TL;DR</strong> - No... well, yes you <em>can</em>, but it won\'t decompose in your lifetime.</p>\n<hr />\n<p>Addressing this question fully - from the point of composting, rather than landfill:</p>\n<ul>\n<li><p>From <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polylactic_acid" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Wikipedia - PLA</a> - <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polylactic_acid#End_of_life" rel="nofollow noreferrer">End of life</a>:</p>\n<blockquote>\n<p><strong>Composting</strong>: PLA is biodegradable under industrial composting conditions, starting with chemical hydrolysis process, followed by microbial digestion, to ultimately degrade the PLA. Under industrial composting conditions (58\xa0°C), PLA can partly (about half) decompose into water and carbon dioxide in 60 days, after which the remainder decomposes much more slowly, with the rate depending on the material\'s degree of crystallinity. Environments without the necessary conditions will see very slow decomposition akin to that of non-bioplastics, not fully decomposing for hundreds or thousands of years.</p>\n</blockquote>\n</li>\n<li><p>According to <a href="https://www.3dnatives.com/en/pla-filament-230720194/#!" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Is PLA filament actually biodegradable?</a>:</p>\n<p>It takes 80 years to biodegrade naturally. Although, how they actually know that for sure, seeing as PLA (for 3D Printing at least) hasn\'t been around for 80 years yet, is unclear.</p>\n</li>\n</ul>\n<hr />\n<p>In addition, PLA can only be recycled at plants that have separate facilities that deal with PLA (as bio-plastics interfere with the recycling of other plastics if combined), and (as an aside) the fumes from PLA are not as harmless as many people think, due to the (up to 40%) additives.</p>\n<p>So, PLA is not such a &quot;happy&quot; plastic as many people are led to believe by the marketing folks...</p>\n'}]
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