Time is relative, right? The clock never seems to move slower than when you’re stuck in an endless Zoom meeting. And that may be why scientists can still describe a carbon cycle measured in months and seasons and life spans as fast.
Fast and closed is natural
The fast carbon cycle represents the movement of carbon throughout the biosphere, meaning all the plants and animals and other organisms that live and die on earth, every day. It’s one of two cycles, and relatively speaking, compared to its slower cousin, which measures the movement of carbon between rocks, soil, ocean and atmosphere and takes about 100-200 million years (that’s slow!), the biospheric fast carbon cycle is fast.
It’s also closed. Whether we’re talking about someone’s mindset, or even the local market you’re rushing to get to on your way home from work, closed is usually negative. But when it comes to the fast carbon cycle, being closed is good. It’s good because closed means balanced, as carbon is released from sources (like decaying plants and animals) and absorbed in carbon sinks (like forests and the sea) in roughly equal measures.
Slow and open has consequences
But what about the things we produce? Whether made of ceramic, glass, metal or plastic, these objects are inescapably part of nature’s great cycles of transformation.
When it comes to plastics, for too long the world has chosen slow. And our seas and oceans testify to the disastrous impact this has had – a recent study estimates that 14 million tonnes of microplastic cover the bottom of the sea and a single-use plastic bottle takes 450 years to break down.
And by burning fossil fuels at tremendous rates, we’re also forcing open the carbon cycle by releasing way more into the atmosphere than is absorbed.
PHAs are part of fast, closed carbon cycles.
But PHAs aim to change that, and PHAs are what we use to create our revolutionary True Biotic pen casing.
PHAs are bio-based raw materials made from microorganisms, and the effect is a 100% organic, plastic-like material that’s made from nature. Unlike other types of bioplastics, you don’t need industrial composting to help them get back to nature, fast. In seawater, freshwater and soil, PHAs can break down rapidly, safely and naturally, without releasing any harmful substances or contributing to carbon emissions as they degrade. They’re part of a fast, closed carbon cycle.
Some things may be relative, but the impact of modern society choosing slow and open has been demonstrably and reliably bad. Now, with True Biotic pen casings made from PHAs, at Prodir we choose fast and closed. And so can you.