The technology is suspect at best, most biodegradable wads need industrial composting the water soluble disappear quick but questionable about what remains, only the cardboard tube type have microorganisms in nature that eat them.
Some biodegradable wads will be in the environment a very long time but less than single use plastic, they have to work at high pressure and high temperature within the gun so it’s challenging.
Progress is being made mainly thanks to the packaging industry an industry worth billions more than shooting but still business are going back to cardboard and paper bags for packaging.
We as shooters and consumers should be given more information about the wads within each product.
this from one wad manufacturer type and just because the material is EN13432 does not mean the product made from it is.
The literature from xxxxx states as follows
" degrades at least 90% in 6 months when subjected to an environment rich in carbon dioxide"
"when in contact with organic materials for a period of 3 months, the mass of the material decomposes for 90% from fragments less than 2mm in size"
"The material is EN13432 certified"
However, the time frames are not applicable to the UK climate. It will take longer to degrade . What shooters have to realise is that to retain the performance and ballistics of a plastic wad the bio wad needs to be rigid/stable enough to suffer the pressure and heat when a cartridge is fired.
These wads will not degrade within weeks or a few months, they will degrade but there are many factors that determine the timeframe. Eg they will start to breakdown quicker in summer, they will breakdown quicker in the South West of the country compared to the north east / Scotland etc due to climate variation.
Also, we need the wads to have a good shelf life, so shooters can store them for a number of months without fear of the wad breaking down in storage. There must be some compromise. Even a fibre wad doesn't degrade within days/ weeks. It can remain for a while.
