What is the Subpod made out of? Why plastic?

It’s great to be concerned about the use of plastic, and we have put a lot of energy into this. When designing the Subpod we have considered many factors, and one of the main things that are important to us is a circular life economy.

We have found that the best material we can use now to manufacture our Subpods is polypropylene which is naturally BPA free.  This is one of the safest plastics available from a health perspective with no endocrine disruptor chemicals and with undetectable leaching.  Because we have designed the Subpod for durability and long life use, as a priority we are initially making Subpods from virgin polypropylene and will field test blends of up to 50% recycled polypropylene to verify these blends have sufficient strength and longevity to permit the use of a percentage of recycled polypropylene in Subpod manufacturing.

 

Polypropylene is water and food safe and has been used in the food industry for many years, able to withstand high temperatures of about 110 degrees Celsius/230 Fahrenheit.  Using polypropylene, Subpods are expected to have a minimum usable lifespan of 10-15 years in the soil without any leaching or degradation which is important since the Subpod will contain and be surrounded by a microbe-dense soil in a wide range of conditions, including damp and high humidity areas.  

 

Doubling as bench seating requires that the materials chosen support body weight.  Polypropylene based Subpods can bear up to 200 kilograms/440.93 pounds.   

 

Finally, the Subpod can be recycled when it reaches the end of its life in your garden, completing its life cycle. There are exciting plastic substitutes being developed which we are looking into, but most of these are designed to be composted after use and we need the Subpod to hold up strong for many years while it is efficiently composting all of your kitchen waste ;-)

It’s number for recycling is 5.

 

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