Polylactic Acid

The London Organizing Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (LOCOG) was committed to making 2012 the very first "zero-waste" Olympic and Paralympic Games.

11 million attendees produced 8,500 tons of solid waste, mostly in the form of plastic packaging.

8,000 tons of this plastic waste was transported to a site where it was composted within 9 weeks and subsequently used to fertilize local crops.

That's right!

There are plastics that can be composted, and the plastic used at the London Olympic Games was the most common compostable plastic which is known as polylactic acid or PLA.

And the chemistry of polylactic acid (PLA) is the subject of this edition of AUS-e-NEWS, AUS-e-TUTE's free quarterly newsletter.

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