Madbull Gets to the Bottom of the BIO BB Scam:
August 14, 2009
Straight from Madbull:
To all Airsoft players and customers,
About a week ago, a few Airsoft players show us an article: “The Madbull and G&G Bio BB Scam”
We don’t know who wrote this article but this article says MadBull BB are not Biodegradable and is a Scam.
To find out the truth, I fly back to Taiwan and meet the sales reprehensive on Aug. 3rd.
We contact the Japan material supplier immediately and we have the following response email from Japan headquarter.
As a BB manufacture, we have to choose the most reliable source of materials to make our BB. We choose Japan P-life to make our Bio BB.
If you have any further concern, please email to [email protected] We will try our best to provide you information needed. All test report are available per request.
The followings are Japan’s response:
First of all, we (“P-Life Japan Inc”) are the principal company of P-Life Oxo-Biodegradable Plastic Technology and are manufacturing “P-Life” degradable additive and supply throughout the world.
On behalf of P-Life Japan Inc, we would like to say thank you for your promotion of P-Life BBs in US and European Market with your tremendous efforts and enthusiasms.
According to Mr. Su Liang Gee (my partner) in Taiwan, he had a meeting with you regarding the article “The Madbull and G&G Bio BB Scam”published on the website of Pub Talk Press dated on August 3rd, 2009. It mentioned about the comparison of P-Life and PLA as the biodegradable materials utilized for BBs with very negative comments.
As a principal of P-Life Oxo-Biodegradable Plastic Technology, I would like to provide the comments regarding the argument mentioned below.
Please refer to the comments in red.
1.Madbull also claims there are no heavy metals in the bbs and has actually produced a TüV certificate. This is either false or Madbull’s factory has failed somewhere.
The test data conducted by TüV is authentic. If they claim that it is not true, they should prove it by showing any technical data through the authorized testing body. Their comment is just an imaginary guess with no ground study. We condemn their comment which really insults the reputation of TüV as an internationally recognized testing body.
2.The Europeans have decided to officially condemn P-Life and all the so-called OXO Degrading compounds. These substances do not degrade and are toxic.
“The Europeans have decided to officially condemn P-Life and all the so-called Oxo…”
We do not know what they are talking about. As far as we know, our product has never been condemned by any Europeans at all. It is quite regrettable to hear this kind of groundless comment.
We have so far conducted various testing with regard to not only the degradability of the plastic products with P-Life but also the safety of our P-Life additive itself. So far, we confirmed the followings;
①P-Life products are complied with ASTM D3826, D5510, G154 certified by Hong Kong Productivity Council.
②The capability of P-Life products to comply with ASTM D6954 (Tier 2, biodegradation) Test has been demonstrated by the loss of molecular weight achieved after thermal/UV degradation, resulting in ultimate biodegradation of the material into CO2, Water and biomass (RAPRA 49063 Report in 2008 and CERI Report in 2005)
③The biodegradability of P-Life products has been demonstrated by the mineralization testing based on ISO14855 (JIS K6953) conducted by CERI JAPAN in 2005.
④The thorough ASTM D6954 test has been conducted by SP Technical Research Institute of Sweden (“SP”) and SP indicates that the trend of biodegradability for P-Life products is still increasing after 240days under both Soil and Compost Environment.
⑤“P-Life Additive” comply with the regulations of heavy metals under EU (EC Directive, Rohs), and US CONEG regulations.
3.Cobalt (see definition below) was identified in the mix. This heavy metal is not regulated in the EU, USA and Japan (but it is in Canada). This is the little trick (or loop hole) in P-Life.
P-Life Additive never contains any amount of Cobalt or its compounds at all.
The heavy metals considered to be highly toxic and strictly limited to use are as follows;
“Hg (Mercury), Pb (Lead), Cd (Cadmium) ,Cr (Chromium)”
As mentioned “P-Life Additive” comply with the regulations of heavy metals under EU (EC Directive, Rohs),
and US CONEG regulations. Please find the attached test reports for your reference.
4.The UK Environmental Agency condemned OXO in the Scottish parliament in 2005. This decision constitutes a legal precedent in the EU and has influenced the Italian Antitrust Commission to heavily fine a chain store for using the statement “100% biodegradable” with an OXO supplemented product.
The above mentioned is not about P-Life and its relating products (finished products) at all. This is about our competitor’s product. The producer of the products should not say “100%” unless they can prove it officially. Sometimes, you might see this kind of exaggerated wording used for the degradable items in order to attract the consumers’ minds.
So, we rather advise you that you should use “Oxo-biodegradable” rather than just “biodegradable” since the Oxo-Biodegradable Plastics are materials that undergo a two-step degradation, initially by an oxidative process that is promoted by the inclusion of catalytic additives such as P-Life and subsequently by biodegradation.
On the other hand, the polymers such as PLA (Polylactic Acids), Starch base polymers are considered to be “Hydro-biodegradable” plastics, which are initiated by hydrolysis degradation and subsequently are biodegraded.
The attached are the test reports for evaluation of “Oxo-biodegradability of P-Life dosed plastic materials” conducted by the testing bodies such as CERI Japan and SP Technical Research Institute of Sweden, who are our research partner in Europe, are in the process of evaluating P-Life dosed Plastics according to ASTM D6954 guideline.
5.PLA will only biodegrade in the conditions set for an Industrial Compost facility and virtually no G&G made PLA bbs go to that kind of facility since no game fields we know of actually spend the time and financial resources to pick up bbs that have been fired into the environment and send them to an Industrial Compost facility.
The above mentioned is true that PLA merely degrades in the very limited condition which is under the controlled composting environment (high moisture with an elevated temperature like 60C). Therefore, it is not realistic that BBs made with PLA will be collected and sent them to the compost facility after shooting them.
On the other hand, the Oxo-Biodegradable plastic products are degrading under the natural environment as long as they can undergo the oxidative reaction enhanced by P-Life additive. Thus, this is one of the advantages to use P-Life BBs rather than using PLA base BBs since the products are shot in the outdoor environments such as hills, mountains etc where we can expect the oxidative degradation by using plenty of oxygen, heat and sun-shines.
We hope that you will find the comments above helpful for you to further develop the degradable BBs markets in both US and Europe. Through your aggressive marketing in US and Europe, if you have any issues, obstacles we have to tackle with, please let us know anytime.
We are truly looking forward to building up a fruitful business relationship with you in very close future.
Thank you & Best Regards,
