Microplastics

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Plastic pollution. and in particular microplastics. are seen today as the main problem with plastics.  They are being found on land, in the sea, and even in the air we breathe and the water we drink.  They are caused by the fragmentation of ordinary plastic when exposed to weathering.

Ordinary plastic persists in the environment, getting smaller and smaller until it is small enough to get into our bodies. This is because the molecular weight is too high to permit biodegradation, and the purpose of d2w technology is to reduce it.

If the plastic is upgraded with d2w it will not just break up into smaller pieces. The molecular chains within the polymer will be dismantled, and it will no longer be a plastic. The resulting material will safely biodegrade, and will not persist in the ecosystem.

The technology has been extensively studied over many years, including studies by Intertek, the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA), the American National Standards Institute (ANSI), Lambton Manufacturing Innovation Centre in Canada, Jordi Labs in the United States CIQA in Mexico, and the Federal Institute of Education, Science and Technology in Brazil.

The OXOMAR study, sponsored by the French government, demonstrates that this type of plastic biodegrades efficiently in seawater.

On 20th June 2025 Symphony’s d2w received approval as follows from the Environmental Protection Agency of the Republic of Ireland – a member-state of the European Union:

“The d2w technology has been scientifically demonstrated to undergo full biodegradation without leaving behind persistent microplastics or toxic residues. This conclusion is supported by independent studies and aligns with the objectives of the Directive to reduce plastic pollution and promote sustainable alternatives.”

THE GLOBAL ISSUE

Waste management in Switzerland is among the most efficient in the world, but the Swiss Federal Office for the Environment says:

“Plastics have no place in the environment. Nevertheless, around 14,000 tonnes of plastics end up in Switzerland’s soil and waters every year – primarily due to the abrasion and decomposition of plastic products and improper disposal of plastic waste. Plastics then accumulate in the environment because they degrade very slowly.”

Clearly the traditional policies of “Reduce, re-use and recycle” are not sufficient.

Some of the microplastics are coming from man-made fibres, and recycling can be a source of microplastics.  Composting can also be a source of microplastics, but most of the microplastics found in the environment are caused by the fragmentation of ordinary plastic which becomes embrittled when exposed to sunlight and stress. It is also said that microplastics are coming from vehicle tyres, but these are fragments of rubber, not plastic.

Waste-management and education must of course be improved, but for the foreseeable future some way must be found to deal with plastic which has escaped into the environment and cannot realistically be collected for inclusion in a circular economy.

This is the reason why d2w plastic was invented. It is used in a wide variety of bottles, packaging, and other products made from polyethylene (PE) or polypropylene (PP), which are among the products most likely to be littered.  It is also very useful in agriculture.

d2w plastic is NOT designed to end up in nature, but it is the only way to prevent plastic which does get into the open environment from accumulating there for decades.  It is designed to be used and disposed of in the same way as ordinary plastic, so there is no need to label the product as biodegradable.  It is designed to biodegrade only if at the end of its useful life it escapes into the open environment deliberately or by accident. It can however be recycled if collected during its useful life.

Ordinary plastic and d2w plastic lose their tensile strength and fall apart at about the same time when exposed to sunlight, depending on their age and degree of stabilisation, but the fragments of ordinary plastic have a molecular weight which is much too high for biodegradation.

d2w technology was invented fifty years ago, not by marketeers or salesmen, but by the scientists who had themselves created plastics, and who realised that the durability which they had achieved could be a problem.

Foremost among these scientists was Professor Gerald Scott, Professor of Chemistry at Aston University. He was the holder of several patents for the technology and was later the Chief Scientific Adviser to the Biodegradable Plastics Association (BPA) and to Symphony Environmental Technologies Plc. He published the results of his work in many scientific publications including “Polymers & the Environment” (ISBN 9780854045785); “Degradable Polymers; Principles & Applications” (ISBN 1-4020-0790-6); and “Programmed-Life Plastics from Polyolefins: A New Look at Sustainability”

Professor Scott and the other polymer scientists made it clear in their published work that PE and PP made with the masterbatch which they had formulated will degrade and then biodegrade in the open environment very much more quickly than ordinary PE or PP, leaving no persistent fragments and no toxicity.

They said that if their invention had been more widely adopted there would be no ocean garbage patches today, but instead the plastics industry chose to continue to make conventional plastic products, which created microplastics and started to accumulate in the oceans. This has now become a serious problem.  Nevertheless, it is not too late – If d2w is widely adopted today the accumulation of plastic in the oceans will start to reduce immediately, and will eventually be reversed.

STANDARDS

Polymer scientists were also the authors of ASTM D6954 and BS 8472 the standards for plastics which biodegrade in the open environment by a combination of oxidation and microbial activity.

By contrast, ASTM D6400 and EN13432 are designed for biodegradation in the special conditions found in a composting facility and are not therefore relevant to biodegradation in the open environment.  Those Standards do not require testing of compostable plastic in a compost heap and ASTM D6954 does not require testing for biodegradation in a field or in the ocean, which would be impossible because the degraded material would be lost and the carbon-evolution could not be measured.

In both cases therefore, the plastics are tested in a laboratory according to standards designed by scientists to replicate the conditions in which they are intended to biodegrade. These standards also require eco-toxicity testing to ensure that they will be safe in the environment. See the evidence of one of the authors of ASTM D6954 to the UK Government. He explains why it contains a caveat recognising that laboratory environments are isolated, unlike the dynamic natural environment – in which degradation and therefore biodegradation is likely to proceed more quickly.

It is not possible to say exactly how long the plastic will take to degrade and then biodegrade in the open environment, because timescale depends on how much heat and sunlight it receives, and on the formulation used and other components of the plastic such as antioxidants.  It is however clear that it will be many times faster than exactly the same type of plastic without a prodegradant masterbatch when exposed under the same conditions in the open environment. Queen Mary University say (at para. 2.3) up to 90 times faster.

There is however no need for it to biodegrade within the 180 days required by the industrial composters for plastic intended to biodegrade in composting.  In fact, once it has abiotically degraded and is no longer a plastic, the length of time for biodegradation is not important.

Exposure to weathering in the environment causes the degradation of ordinary PE and PP products leading to embrittlement and fragmentation in as little as 4-8 weeks particularly when exposed to sunlight. They will float on water because their specific gravity is less than 1.

Although ordinary plastic and d2w biodegradable plastic lose their strength and fall apart when exposed in the open environment, the fragments of ordinary plastic have a molecular weight which is much too high for biodegradation.  In the case of d2w biodegradable plastics, Professor Ignacy Jakubowicz, one of the world’s leading polymer scientists has explained: “The degradation process is not only a fragmentation, but is an entire change of the material from a high molecular weight polymer, to monomeric and oligomeric fragments, and from hydrocarbon molecules to oxygen-containing molecules which can be bioassimilated.”

The prodegradant catalyst in the d2w masterbatch not only accelerates oxidative degradation, but also – critically – removes the dependence of this process on sunlight so that, unlike conventional plastics or photo-degradable plastics, degradation will continue in darkness – until biodegradability is achieved. Moisture is not necessary for oxidation and does not prevent it.

In summary it is clear that if PE and PP products are made with a d2w masterbatch and get into the open environment intentionally or by accident, the molecular-weight of the plastic will reduce much more quickly and it will become a waxy substance which is no longer a plastic. It will then have become a source of nutrition for naturally occurring micro-organisms.

DEFINITIONS

What is a microplastic?

The key point is that a fragment is not a microplastic if it is biodegradable and therefore not persistent.

The Annex XV restriction report by the European Chemicals Agency says at page 7 “The term ‘microplastic’ is not consistency defined, but is typically considered to refer to small, usually microscopic, solid particles made of a synthetic polymer. They are associated with long-term persistence in the environment, if released, as they are very resistant to (bio)degradation.”

At page 13 “Microplastics are extremely persistent in the environment, and are difficult to remove once they are there.”

This view is supported in the report by the Netherlands National Institute for Public Health and the Environment “Towards a definition of microplastics – Considerations for the specification of physico-chemical properties” which says (p11) “The presence of plastics in the environment is of great concern because plastics are persistent.”

“From the perspective of the marine environment, microplastics that disappear quickly by natural processes (e.g. biodegradation to harmless degradation products), or microplastics that never reach the aquatic environment are not of concern.”