Community Updates

New Research Highlights Marine Biodegradability of Eastman Aventa™ Compostable Materials

A groundbreaking new study published in ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering reveals that cellulose diacetate (CDA)-based foams made with Eastman Aventa™ compostable materials rapidly biodegrade in the marine environment.

Published 2 weeks ago | About a 1 minute read

Image: Eastman Aventa™

The article concludes that biodegradable, CDA-based foams are commercially useful and will not persist in our oceans as plastic pollution.

Scientists from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), the world’s leading independent, nonprofit organization dedicated to ocean research, exploration and education, led the study. WHOI’s research and journal article focuses on CDA-based foams made with Aventa, which lost up to 70% of their mass after 36 weeks of incubation in seawater. In contrast, polystyrene foams — a material commonly used for food packaging — showed no signs of degradation. The study found that CDA foams degrade faster than any material evaluated under environmentally relevant marine conditions — more than quadruple that of paper and up to 1,000 times greater than solid polypropylene, polystyrene and polylactic acid (PLA).

Read the full release here.