Does Bioglitter™ contain aluminium, and if so, how can it still be called biodegradable?
The reflective aluminium layer in Bioglitter™ SPARKLE and Bioglitter™ HOLO products has been optimised to be as thin as possible, 2500 times thinner than a human hair!
Aluminium is a metal that’s found in the natural world, it’s the most abundant metal in Earth’s crust. Like water and minerals, metals are inorganic, meaning they don’t contain carbon. Only organic* substances have the potential to biodegrade. Inorganic compounds, do not contain carbon and therefore exempt from the biodegradability performance of a material. Bioglitter™ consists of mostly organic material, that’s independently proven to biodegrade extremely well in the natural environment.
Of course if a glitter was made from 100% aluminium it would not be biodegradable. However, in the case of Bioglitter™ products the aluminium content is negligible, the vast majority of the content being biodegradable and therefore why Bioglitter™’s fresh water biodegradability performance is market leading.
Biodegradability tests evaluate how well organic materials biodegrade in a environment particular to a specific test… how long, how much in a specific environment. Typical test environments increasing in difficulty to pass; Industrial Composting ⇒ Home Composting ⇒ Soil ⇒ Fresh Water.
Microplastic is the concern with glitter, ie organic polymers that don’t biodegrade in the natural environment, up at fresh water level of performance.
*Organic – means carbon containing. Not to be confused with the term ‘organic’ that’s used to market or communicate that a vegetable, for example, has been produced or involving production without the use of chemical fertilizers, pesticides, or other artificial chemicals.