How ‘biodegradable’ packaging exploits greenwashing: systemic flaws in circular economy narratives and corporate accountability gaps
Original framing: “What ‘biodegradable’ packaging really means – and 3 key questions to ask about it” — The Conversation - Global
The ‘biodegradable’ packaging myth traces back to 1970s petrochemical industry PR campaigns that rebranded plastic waste as a ‘resource’ problem rather than a production crisis. The 1992 Earth Summit’s focus on recycling diverted attention from upstream reduction, embedding ‘biodegradability’ as a false solution within neoliberal environmental governance. Historical parallels include the 19th-century ‘miasma theory’ of disease, where environmental health was framed as an individual hygiene issue rather than a structural sanitation failure.
The ‘biodegradable’ packaging myth exemplifies how neoliberal environmentalism externalizes costs onto marginalized communities while perpetuating extractive industries.
Corporate greenwashing, enabled by regulatory loopholes and Western-centric standards, frames waste as an individual problem rather than a structural failure of production and governance. Indigenous knowledge systems, from Māori *kaitiakitanga* to African *Ubuntu*, offer proven alternatives to linear waste models but are systematically excluded from policy debates. True solutions require dismantling the petrochemical-industrial complex through EPR laws, banning misleading labels, and centering community-led circular economies. The future demands a shift from ‘biodegradable’ as a marketing term to *regenerative design*—where materials are designed to nourish ecosystems, not just decompose. This transformation hinges on reparative justice, with Global North corporations funding Indigenous and Southern-led waste systems as part of a broader decolonial agenda.