<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>
<blockquote>
<p>The reality however, is that this process will take several hundred
years in a typical landfill. To biodegrade, PLA requires a laundry
list of conditions to effectively break down. Specifically - oxygen, a
temperature of 140+ degrees <em>[Fahrenheit -- ed note]</em>, and a 2/3 cocktail of organic substrate.
Collectively, these are absent in any scenario outside of industrial
composting facilities.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>I found similar comments -- tho' with perhaps slightly lower temperatures elsewhere.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-05-25T07:20:01.613Z
note that those conditions are even absent in industrial composting!
Trish
CC BY-SA 4.0
2017-02-15T19:08:52.460Z
2022-05-25T07:19:42.043Z
2022-05-25T07:19:42.043Z
Carl Witthoft
<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>

<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>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-05-25T07:21:01.703Z
Based on tests conducted by several groups, the claim is simply wrong.
Trish
CC BY-SA 4.0
2024-09-02T09:11:37.923Z
@tomas Well PLA is made from organic material instead of petrochemicals. So yes it degrades faster, but that means a couple decades instead of centuries under normal conditions.
Matthias Urlichs
CC BY-SA 4.0
2024-09-02T09:12:11.980Z
@Trish I don't doubt you, but please provide links anyway.
Matthias Urlichs
CC BY-SA 4.0
2024-09-02T13:44:01.397Z
@matthiasulrichs see the other answers. Or CNC kitchen.
Trish
CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-02-15T15:13:13.390Z
Based on the way they treat grammar, I have doubts about reliability of that site: *How is unique about PLA and how it is different than regular plastic?*
Tomáš Zato
CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-02-15T15:11:05.133Z
2017-02-15T15:11:05.133Z
Dampmaskin
<p><strong>TL;DR</strong> - No... well, yes you <em>can</em>, but it won't decompose in your lifetime.</p>
<hr />
<p>Addressing this question fully - from the point of composting, rather than landfill:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>From <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polylactic_acid" rel="noreferrer">Wikipedia - PLA</a> - <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polylactic_acid#End_of_life" rel="noreferrer">End of life</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<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 °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>
</blockquote>
</li>
<li><p>According to <a href="https://www.3dnatives.com/en/pla-filament-230720194/#!" rel="noreferrer">Is PLA filament actually biodegradable?</a>:</p>
<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>
</li>
</ul>
<hr />
<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>
<p>So, PLA is not such a &quot;happy&quot; plastic as many people are led to believe by the marketing folks...</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-07-17T03:01:58.997Z
I don't think the existing answers are accurate and would like to see more information in the form of actual test results. There's a great deal of misinformation out there about plastics taking hundreds or thousands of years to break down, which seems to be at odds with easily made observations about what happens to things like plastic cups left outside for a few months to a few years. There's also the matter of structure and whether it's crushed/shredded, think objects to begin with, or a thick object with high infill.
R.. GitHub STOP HELPING ICE
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-07-17T19:55:09.937Z
@R..GitHubSTOPHELPINGICE Regarding where those plastic cups go to: [The big problem of microplastics](https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/connectonline/research/2018/the-big-problem-of-microplastics.aspx) - Wayback Machine: [The big problem of microplastics](https://web.archive.org/web/20230308050619/https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/connectonline/research/2018/the-big-problem-of-microplastics.aspx).
Andrew Morton
CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-05-25T07:52:18.537Z
Also worth Noting: CNC kitchen's experiments of 2021
Trish
CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-11-28T16:00:05.070Z
@Trish - Just seen your comment/link. That is an interesting site. After some searching, I only found a 2022 article (not 2021, but I guess that the experiment was in 2021 and they wrote about it in 2022): [PUTTING 3D PRINTS IN A HOME COMPOST](https://www.cnckitchen.com/blog/putting-3d-prints-in-a-home-compost). This looks interesting too, I think that there was a question about it, long ago: [RECYCLING OLD 3D PRINTS INTO NEW FILAMENT](https://www.cnckitchen.com/blog/recycling-old-3d-prints-into-new-filament)
Greenonline
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-07-17T01:32:22.347Z
2021-07-17T01:46:41.300Z
2021-07-17T01:46:41.300Z
Greenonline
<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 &quot;biodegradable&quot; 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>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-02-15T16:13:55.700Z
I doubt they will understand... I would not do this.
MakerModder
<pla><recycling><waste>
Can I really throw failed PLA prints on compost?
Tomáš Zato
# Can I really throw failed PLA prints on compost?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2017-02-15)

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

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.

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

**Tags:** pla, recycling, waste

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: I doubt they will understand... I would not do this.  

---

## 3 answers

### Answer by username_6 on 2021-07-17. Score: 6 | Accepted answer

**TL;DR** - No... well, yes you *can*, but it won't decompose in your lifetime.

---

Addressing this question fully - from the point of composting, rather than landfill:

* From [Wikipedia - PLA](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polylactic_acid) - [End of life](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polylactic_acid#End_of_life):

  > **Composting**: 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 °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.
* According to [Is PLA filament actually biodegradable?](https://www.3dnatives.com/en/pla-filament-230720194/#!):

  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.

---

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.

So, PLA is not such a "happy" plastic as many people are led to believe by the marketing folks...

> **Comments:**
> **username_7**: I don't think the existing answers are accurate and would like to see more information in the form of actual test results. There's a great deal of misinformation out there about plastics taking hundreds or thousands of years to break down, which seems to be at odds with easily made observations about what happens to things like plastic cups left outside for a few months to a few years. There's also the matter of structure and whether it's crushed/shredded, think objects to begin with, or a thick object with high infill.  
> **username_8**: @username_7 Regarding where those plastic cups go to: [The big problem of microplastics](https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/connectonline/research/2018/the-big-problem-of-microplastics.aspx) - Wayback Machine: [The big problem of microplastics](https://web.archive.org/web/20230308050619/https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/connectonline/research/2018/the-big-problem-of-microplastics.aspx).  
> **username_3**: Also worth Noting: CNC kitchen's experiments of 2021  
> **username_6**: @username_3 - Just seen your comment/link. That is an interesting site. After some searching, I only found a 2022 article (not 2021, but I guess that the experiment was in 2021 and they wrote about it in 2022): [PUTTING 3D PRINTS IN A HOME COMPOST](https://www.cnckitchen.com/blog/putting-3d-prints-in-a-home-compost). This looks interesting too, I think that there was a question about it, long ago: [RECYCLING OLD 3D PRINTS INTO NEW FILAMENT](https://www.cnckitchen.com/blog/recycling-old-3d-prints-into-new-filament)  

---

### Answer by username_2 on 2017-02-15. Score: 7

This question has been asked on just about every forum out there. Here's one example from [filabot.com](https://www.filabot.com/blogs/news/57233604-the-misleading-biodegradability-of-pla) .

> The reality however, is that this process will take several hundred
> years in a typical landfill. To biodegrade, PLA requires a laundry
> list of conditions to effectively break down. Specifically - oxygen, a
> temperature of 140+ degrees *[Fahrenheit -- ed note]*, and a 2/3 cocktail of organic substrate.
> Collectively, these are absent in any scenario outside of industrial
> composting facilities.

I found similar comments -- tho' with perhaps slightly lower temperatures elsewhere.

> **Comments:**
> **username_3**: note that those conditions are even absent in industrial composting!  

---

### Answer by username_4 on 2017-02-15. Score: 0

PLA products will take up to 6 months to degrade in commercial composting facility. In home composting facility, it may take longer time.

Source: <http://www.biogreenchoice.com/category_s/1866.htm>

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: Based on the way they treat grammar, I have doubts about reliability of that site: *How is unique about PLA and how it is different than regular plastic?*  
> **username_3**: Based on tests conducted by several groups, the claim is simply wrong.  
> **username_5**: @tomas Well PLA is made from organic material instead of petrochemicals. So yes it degrades faster, but that means a couple decades instead of centuries under normal conditions.  
> **username_5**: @username_3 I don't doubt you, but please provide links anyway.  
> **username_3**: @matthiasulrichs see the other answers. Or CNC kitchen.  

---

