Battle for best bottle

Out of 50 billion plastic water bottles used in the U.S. last year, only 23 percent were recycled. The rest - 38 billion – ended up in landfills.

To quench the thirst for biodegradable packaging comes a new generation of compostable plastics. Though the new bottles look and feel like plastic, a bio-polymer replaces fossil fuel-based petrochemicals with plant starch.

Environmentalists are excited but the operators of recycling systems, at least in New Zealand, are less so.

Update: The Economist also analyzes the subject.