While recycling is being much more a part of our lives in reality the large amount of energy used in the recycling process can outweighs the benefits gained from recycling products, although it does manage to cut back on waste.

An environmentally alternative has seen the biodegradable indutries experience large growth in recent years, as people look to make less of an imprint in the world that we live in and our future generations will be left with.

Biodegradable refers to product that are capable of being broken down and decomposed by biological agents, namely bacteria. This means that products can be broken down in the earth, composts or landfills and have no trace left of whatsoever. This is great when compared to the many years it takes to break down for example a plastic bag or cigarette stub.

A "biodegradable" product has the ability to break down, safely and relatively quickly, by biological means, into the raw materials of nature and disappear into the environment. These products can be solids biodegrading into the soil (which we also refer to as compostable), or liquids biodegrading into water. Biodegradable plastic is intended to break up when exposed to microorganisms (a natural ingredient such as cornstarch or vegetable oil is added to achieve this result).

Sustainable disposal of any product requires that its wastes return to the earth and are able to biodegrade. Nature biodegrades everything it makes back into basic building blocks, so that new living things can be made from the old. Every resource made by nature returns to nature-plants and animals biodegrade, even raw crude oil will degrade when exposed to water, air, and the necessary salts. Nature has perfected this system-we just need to learn how to participate in it.

By the time many resources are turned into products, however, they have been altered by industry in such a way that they are unrecognizable to the microorganisms and enzymes that return natural materials to their basic building blocks. Crude oil, for example, will biodegrade in its natural state, but once it is turned into plastic, it becomes an unsustainable pollution problem. Instead of returning to the cycle of life, these products simply pollute and litter our land, air, and water.

One great biodegradable product we have come across on the internet is Enviroarc's biodegradable pots. Using moulded bamboo fibre they are manufacturing a non polluting pot that is fully biodegradable. This is great news when you look at the million of plastic pots that are currently used in the world today, and they look like a viable environmentally alternative to the earth damaging plastic pots that are current used.

The pots are available in a wide range of colours and look great for use in the home or the house. On top of the biodegradable pot, they also manufacture a range of other biodegradable products from the same process.