The adoption of anaerobic digesters (ADs) and technologies stacked with them (AD+) has the potential to offer benefits to dairy producers and the environment. Production of biochar, hydrochar, and bioplastics can reduce greenhouse gas emissions, offer economic benefits to farmers through the sale of value-added products, reduce the need for fertilizer purchases, and promote a circular economy for dairy producers. We use a diffusion of innovations framework augmented to include economic, environmental, social, and regulatory considerations in addition to the operational aspects of the technologies. We conducted interviews with 21 participants representing for-profit, not-for-profit, governmental, and community service agencies in Idaho, the third-largest U.S. dairy state. Semi-structured interviews explored participants’ experiences with and perceptions of how relative advantage, compatibility, complexity, observability, trialability, environmental, economic, and social factors may facilitate or hinder the adoption of AD and three related emerging AD+ technologies. Interviews were analyzed using inductive coding and thematic analysis. Results show that participants were familiar with the need to address dairy manure waste and were interested in the potential benefits to farm revenue and the environment. However, the same factors associated with the relatively low adoption of AD in Idaho may also hinder the adoption of newer AD+ technologies. These include a lack of observability and trialability, installation and maintenance costs, access to technology, uncertain environmental impacts, unrealized economic benefits to dairy producers, and regulatory burden.

This perspective explains why the lack of regulation around bioplastics remains a hurdle for the successful development and implementation of a legally binding agreement (the Global Plastics Treaty) by the United Nations Environment Assembly to curb plastic pollution by 2024. For example, bioplastics have been marketed to consumers as the panacea solution to our plastic waste crisis. Of the >400 million tonnes of plastics produced each year, <1% are bioplastics, but the market value of bioplastics is expected to grow. The rapid growth of the environmentally ‘sustainable’ plastic market has resulted in an overwhelming variety of products with different properties and labels, which has led to widespread public confusion, particularly about disposal guidelines. The umbrella term of ‘bioplastics’ describes plastics that can be fully or partially sourced from biological matter, unlike conventional petroleum-based plastics. Within this family of plastics, products can be ‘biodegradable’, ‘oxo-biodegradable’ and ‘compostable’ depending on their chemical composition and the external conditions required at disposal (end-of-life). However, cases of petroleum-based biodegradable plastics have been referred to as bioplastics, which is inaccurate. Overall, this lack of regulation remains a hurdle for the successful development and implementation of the Global Plastics Treaty.