Greenhouse Tomato Growing About to Get Greener

Convex Plastics, June 24th, 2010

Ten growing bags made from Convex Plastic’s hybrid biodegradable EcoFuse film were planted with cherry tomatoes in April to evaluate how they will perform in a greenhouse.

The tomatoes will be grown indoors in the EcoFuse growing bags for 12 months. During this time the EcoFuse bags will be reviewed on a monthly basis to monitor how well the film stands up to the humid greenhouse conditions and continuous exposure to UV sunlight.

Convex Technical Manager Andrew Sheerin says the aim of the trial is to find a functional biodegradable growing bag film that will not prematurely breakdown.

EcoFuse is a hybrid film made from 45% (Poly Lactic Acid) PLA derived from renewable corn and 55% biodegradable Polyester (made from non-renewable petrochemicals). The film meets European compostable standards and behaves exactly like organic waste when disposed of.

Andrew says, “EcoFuse is by far the best candidate for this type of application out of all the bio-degradable films that we work with. It doesn’t soften like cornstarch-based films and it’s resistant to moisture, and therefore well placed to cope with the watering of plants in the greenhouse. However, if the EcoFuse film proves not to be suitable we will continue the trials with other films.”

At the end of the growing season Convex will compost all the discarded EcoFuse growing bags with the organic tomato and growing media waste.

Andrew says, “Finding a biodegradable alternative to the current traditional polyethylene growing bags will save growers a lot of time and significantly reduce the amount of landfill waste generated by this type of greenhouse growing. The disposal of polyethylene growing bags is both tricky and time consuming as they are not compostable and have to be separated from the organic waste.”

The greenhouse performance evaluation of the EcoFuse growing bags is the second phase of a trial that Convex Plastics is carrying out with a leading growing media company and grower. The trial aims to reduce the amount of landfill waste generated by commercial greenhouse tomato growing. 

Earlier this year the first phase of the trial confirmed that EcoFuse breaks down well once composted. After 14 weeks in a bark composting facility, only a fifth of the original EcoFuse growing bags remained and what was left had broken down into small fragments.

Andrew says, “The first phase of the trial confirmed that, although it contains a percentage of non-renewal material, EcoFuse is completely compostable and breaks down fairly quickly.”