adj.

Capable of being decomposed by biological agents, especially bacteria: a biodegradable detergent.

biodegradability bi'o·de·grad'a·bil'i·ty n.
biodegradation bi'o·deg'ra·da'tion (-dĕg'rə-dā'shən) n.
biodegrade bi'o·de·grade' v.

Origin: 1961

It took the inventiveness of modern science to create a need for words like recycle (1926) and biodegradable. Until this century, those concepts were so familiar that they needed no name. Things were too valuable to not to be recycled, and when they finally wore out, they were almost always biodegradable. Containers were built to be used again and again. They were made of metal that could be refabricated, or glass, clay, or wood that would eventually return to earth. Houses were built to last, vehicles and clothes to last till they wore out. (According to Oliver Wendell Holmes's popular poem, the deacon's wonderful one-hoss shay lasted a century before collapsing.) People made a living by collecting old rags and scrap metal.

But the twentieth century brought new materials and manufacturing techniques, lowering the cost of things while making them impervious to decay. Ours was the century of the throw-away (1903), and what we threw away stayed around to haunt us. Aluminum would not rust; plastics would not crumble; artificial fibers would not rot. Litter became a persistent problem on beaches, parks, and roads. Landfills overflowed. Detergents caused rivers and ponds to foam. We had to ask whether the materials of modern life could vanish inconspicuously into nature when we finished with them.

It took a new word to express this new concern: biodegradable. It was borrowed from the scientists and first attested in 1961 in a book on industrial microbiology: "Compounds with strictly linear side chains and those containing one or two methyl branches on the carbon atom attached to the benzene ring are readily biodegradable." By 1962, Chemical and Engineering News was bringing biodegradable down to earth in discussing "feedstock...suitable for the production of a completely biodegradable detergent." And we developed new ethics and passed new laws to give preference to the biodegradable so that we would not be buried in our indestructible junk.

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That which can be decomposed by naturally occurring organisms such as bacteria; apple cores are biodegradable while polythene bags are not.

(beye-oh-di-gray-duh-buhl)

Material that, left to itself, will be decomposed by natural processes.

The use of biodegradable packaging is supposed to reduce the volume of waste in landfills.

The series of processes by which living systems render chemicals less noxious to the environment.

Dansk (Danish)
adj. - biologisk nedbrydelig

Nederlands (Dutch)
biologisch afbreekbaar

Français (French)
adj. - biodégradable

Deutsch (German)
adj. - biologisch abbaubar

Ελληνική (Greek)
adj. - βιοδιαλυτός, βιοαποδομήσιμος

Italiano (Italian)
biodegradabile

Português (Portuguese)
adj. - biodegradável

Русский (Russian)
подверженный биологическому разложению

Español (Spanish)
adj. - biodegradable

Svenska (Swedish)
adj. - biologiskt nedbrytbar

中文（简体） (Chinese (Simplified))
生物所能分解的

中文（繁體） (Chinese (Traditional))
adj. - 生物所能分解的

한국어 (Korean)
adj. - 미생물로 분해할 수 있는

日本語 (Japanese)
adj. - 生分解性のある

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(صفه) قابل للتحلل بالبكتيريا‏

עברית (Hebrew)
adj. - ‮מתפרק ביולוגית‬

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