Biodegradable plastics?

[midnighthrasher]

Been out of the loop for a bit and getting back at it. 

 

I was wondering if there were any companies making plastics like Tubes, Ika's, Senkos & flipping craws... that were biodegradable. 

 

Given all the changes going on that are pro environment I would think someone would get ahead of the curve  and make a high quality biodegradable option. 

 

Thanks,

 

[MN Fisher]

You'd have to get the license from Cargill/Dow as their jointly developed formulation is the most 'successful' of the biodegradable plastics.

 

Good luck dealing with that pair of 8-ton gorillas (Dow everyone knows, Cargill is the second largest privately owned corporation in the world.)

[J Francho]

There a few soft plastics companies that offer biodegradable baits.  Kast King has a biodegradable spool for some of their reel filler lines.

[Bass Junke]

Bio Baits. Tackle Warehouse has them. Don't really look that great. No reviews yet.

[Dirtyeggroll]

Just use live bait. You’ll probably catch more fish anyway. Haha

[OkobojiEagle]

Gulp

[Black Hawk Basser]

Search Berkley Gulp! Their Sinking Minnow has been great for me.  You should try to use the whole bag in one season because it's tough to keep them preserved well.  Even if they don't dry out, they will get misshapen in the package after a year or so.  And don't leave them on the hook out of the water for very long.  You'll basically have to throw the hook and all away.

[Yumeya]

I honestly wish there was more available, the world has enough plastic in it.

 

When I worked for Cabelas/BPS it was insane that amounts of plastics that they threw away and just how much 

of it was hanging on pegs to sell.

 

I still do use plastics a lot, I also prefer stuff like Zman because it lasts so long and I always save my baits 

to recycle at home. 

[Hower08]

1 hour ago, Yumeya said:

I honestly wish there was more available, the world has enough plastic in it.

 

When I worked for Cabelas/BPS it was insane that amounts of plastics that they threw away and just how much 

of it was hanging on pegs to sell.

 

I still do use plastics a lot, I also prefer stuff like Zman because it lasts so long and I always save my baits 

to recycle at home. 

Why were they throwing plastic baits away

[Yumeya]

1 hour ago, Hower08 said:

Why were they throwing plastic baits away

 

Discontinued as Cabelas brand.

[WRB]

Pork rind.

Tom

[CountryboyinDC]

It may help to read up on what constitutes a biodegradable or compostable plastic.  This is a bit out of my field - although I can understand the chemistry behind it, I'm no material scientist.  I came across some compostable plastics a while ago and checked into the way they worked.  The bottom line is you wouldn't be able to compost them in your compost heap at home.  The biodegradable term is applied to plastics that could, due to their chemical structure be broken down by a naturally occurring organism.  Whether they encounter the conditions that allow that where they're used is another, and there are arguements in the literature that given the intended use, it's unlikely that they'll be decomposed to the same extent that non-biodegradable plastics are.  I do use Nikko helgrammites, and read about them after the outfitter I bought them from told me what had made him start selling these baits.  There's a lot of lingo used that leads me to believe it's possibly more sales pitch than actual environmental benefit.  I do use them, because like the Zman baits, the baits last longer, and I guess that leads to less plastic in the waterways.  There are also places that take use soft plastics that will be repoured or recasted, sort of like your plastic grocery bags.  

Come to think of it @Dirtyeggroll and @WRB might have the best options we have at the moment.

[MassYak85]

On 7/22/2019 at 12:16 PM, midnighthrasher said:

 

Given all the changes going on that are pro environment I would think someone would get ahead of the curve  and make a high quality biodegradable option. 

 

Thanks,

 

Unfortunately the two are almost entirely mutually exclusive. People want plastic they can toss on the ground or in the water and it will degrade naturally... But also want the same properties that we have all come to love about plastic. You can't have both. A material that degrades that quickly under natural conditions simply will not last long and will be lacking in material properties. 

 

You essentially want something that degrades in water.... That is going to spend the entirety of its use... In water. It's a hard sell. 

 

The best bet for being enviornmentally friendly is to use natural baits. I think Berkley has non plastic baits and a few other companies. 

 

But you also have to worry about marketing terms. A "bio based" plastic is NOT necessarily one that will biodegrade. It simply means it was made using bio based feedstock. A biodegradable plastic will degrade easier than typical plastics but may require special conditions to break down that may be different than just losing a bait in a lake. 

 

@CountryboyinDC kind of hit the nail on the head too. There's a lot of misinformation that gets spread around to make people think they're buying products that are better for the environment when the products themselves really aren't better at all. It's just feel good talk a lot of times. Take BPA. One or the replacement chemicals, BPS (no not bass pro shops lol), is actually worse, yet they can sell "BPA free" products and people will buy it. 

 

At the end of the day the biggest individual impact we can have is probably to not litter and to pick up others' trash.