General InformationPlastic plays an important role in our lives due to its ability to be functional in many different ways, such as plastic water bottles and the rubber in car tires . It seems like everything is plastic these days, but what happens once consumers are done with the product? Statistics Canada showed that in 2012, Canadians produced an average of 13.4 million tonnes of waste, 73% of which was disposed of. Of the 27% of waste recycled, only 17% of plastics were recycled correctly, with the rest sent to landfills. (Babooram and Wang, 2013). Improper disposal is a problem because plastic, once landfilled, cannot completely decompose (Platt, 2001). The logical solution for plastics unable to degrade in landfills is to use biodegradable plastics. However, are biodegradable plastics the answer to society's dependence on plastic? Arguments have been made about whether the benefits of biodegradable plastics outweigh the harms and whether their use will actually make a difference in our world.Survey ResultsSurvey Results; Biodegradable plastics have shown that most people do not know about biodegradable plastics but try their best to be environmentally conscious. The survey showed that those who knew the definition of biodegradable were more environmentally conscious and had more knowledge on this topic. One trend observed in the survey was that the older the age group, the more knowledge they had about biodegradable plastics. A general trend in the survey showed that many were surprised to learn that biodegradable plastics put in landfills will not degrade. They also did not know that biodegradable plastics cannot be recycled with regular plastics and will be sorted... middle of paper ...... of micro-organisms, must be at a certain temperature, humidity and acquire the appropriate nutrients. deteriorate (Platt, 2001). However, if consumers are not willing to take the time to properly recycle these biodegradable plastics – as the survey shows – they will end up in landfills and take just as long to decompose as regular plastics (Szaky, 2012). Since plastic never completely degrades, this means that biodegradable plastics won't land as well. Landfills are specifically designed to be airtight and moisture-free, not allowing even organic matter such as food waste to decompose even after long periods of time (Di Mungo, 2012). Therefore, the consumer's intentions may be good, but if they do not educate themselves about biodegradable plastics and learn how to properly dispose of them, the purpose of plastic being biodegradable is lost...