Frequently Asked Questions

1. What is this about?
   This is about a corrugated plastic sheet that can offer all of the normal outdoor performance properties, until breakdown begins 5-6 months after outdoor installation. At that point and onward, they are "made to degrade".


2. What actually happens?
   Additives in the sheets start to break the long molecules into smaller and smaller pieces with accumulating exposure to heat, sun and Oxygen. The sheets become brittle and break smaller until they are short molecules that can be eaten by various aerobic microbes.


3. This product will be stored and sold by distributors; will it be breaking down when my printer receives the sheets?
   The degradable stock sheets will be stable for 9-12 months if stored in cool dark conditions (away from roof "heat zones"). Some care will need to be taken to ensure proper stock rotation – Matra Plast will ship each skid with a Use before Date prominently displayed.


4. My printer uses UV lamps that are hot in the printing process will this initiate breakdown?
   The short exposure should not be enough to trigger accelerated breakdown. The breakdown requires accumulated exposures.


5. Do all sheets degrade at the same rate?
   The process will be faster or slower depending on many variables. More heat and more UV exposure will speed up the process, less heat and less UV will slow it down. The most important consideration is that once it ends up in a landfill it will breakdown and disappears.


6. How long is it going to last in the landfill?
   Again, this timing is not an exact timetable, however, ASTM testing which has been done to date suggests that from 12-months the material will be fragmenting into smaller pieces and by 24 months will be pretty much unrecognizable.


7. What is left at the end of the process?
   The bacteria digest the material, leaving environmentally friendly humus which is part of the natural life "carbon cycle" of micro bacteria. In addition, miniscule amounts of CO2 and H2O are released and from the breakdown initiating additives a small amount of non-toxic mineral salts.


8. What is the difference between starch based biodegradable polymers and Oxo-Biodegradable materials?
   Starch based plastics, such as PLA (polylactic acid) require a major use of energy to produce the product, have a very high cost compared to polypropylene with oxo-biodegradable additives and are subject to a rapid release of CO2 (greenhouse gas) during breakdown, which limits humus production.