It’s that time of year when I stir up my compost pile, which has been dormant all winter, and bring it back to life with a big helping of lush, green weeds that I’ve just pulled up. It’s also the time of year when I look to see if the supposedly “biodegradable” green spoon is still there. And yes it is. If I scrubbed off the dirt stains, I could probably put it right back where I found it more than three years ago, at a frozen yoghurt shop in a bin of plastic utensils boldly labeled “biodegradable,” and no one would notice.
“Biodegradable”? Really, I thought. What’s it made of anyway? Compressed cornstalks or something? It looked like standard-issue, practically indestructible plastic to me. But giving the yoghurt vendor the benefit of the doubt, I tossed it into my compost pile, through which many hundreds of pounds of kitchen and garden waste have been cycled since I tossed the spoon into the mix. There it is again this year-pictured above on the top of my pile with some other nonbiodegradable objects that surfaced-looking no worse for the wear at the start of its fourth growing season in my compost pile.