Everyone is talking about the “green” wave: green building, green energy and green everything else. Around my house we call it greenspeak. Like any other language, greenspeak has its own vocabulary.

   What is the difference between degradable and biodegradable? What is a bio-resin or the difference between “old carbon” and “new carbon”?

Here are some greenspeak definitions.

   Old carbon: The term includes petroleum, natural gas, coal and other substances that we consider fossil fuels. We use these resources for fuel, energy, chemicals for agriculture and industry and in the manufacture of plastics for everyday life. But the use of these products over the last 60 years has released long-sequestered carbon into the atmosphere and has had other polluting effects.

   New carbon: This term refers to annually renewable and sustainable agricultural crops such as corn, sugar, forest resources and any residual agricultural waste, such as rice straw, grape vine trimmings, corn husks or sugar cane bagasse (the fiber left after extracting the sugar).

   Carbon neutral:  All products and energy made from biological sources are carbon neutral. If a plant is burned, the carbon released is equal to what the plant absorbed from the atmosphere during growth. If the plant is composted, much of the carbon will be fixed in the compost, replenishing the soil to assist plant growth instead of being released into the atmosphere.

Biodegradable: Capable of decomposing with the help of bacteria or enzymes. All organic matter will decompose eventually. The time required depends on the ambient conditions.

   Compostable: Biodegradable within a certain period of time. Depending on the certification requirements, this can range from 60 to 180 days under industrial composting conditions, including temperatures up to 140 degrees F, adequate moisture and bacterial or enzymatic action.

   Degradable:  Currently most garden products such as plastic six-packs, potting soil bags and plastic mulch are degradable. Yet degradable is a deceiving term. Plastic photo-degrades, breaking down in sunlight into ever smaller pieces. It does not decompose like organic matter. It remains what it is: plastic. These tiny pieces eventually end up in our watershed, working their way through creeks and storm drains to the ocean.

   Oliophilic: This word comes from Greek words meaning “love of oil.” Romantic as it sounds, it is not good. Petroleum-based chemicals, pesticides and other toxins are diluted in the ocean’s vast waters. But when tiny pieces of plastic find their way to the ocean, their oliophilic (oil-loving) quality attracts and accumulates up to one million times their weight in oil-based chemicals. To make matters worse, these little toxic specks look like plankton to fish — another reason to support biodegradable or compostable products even if they won’t be composted.

   Biodiesel: Ethanol gets the buzz, but the real action is with biodiesel. Biodiesel can be made from biological sources such as soybeans and cooking oils, or from the real new star: pond scum. Thousands of algae strains are being tested to see which have the highest oil content. But already, closed algae ponds sited next to coal plants are using the captured carbon dioxide (which plants love) to reproduce four times a day, producing up to 15,000 gallons of fuel per acre.

   And while you may think this is a lot of hooey, a Boeing Company spokesman was reported this year as saying that algae ponds totaling 34,000 square kilometers could produce enough fuel to reduce the net carbon dioxide footprint for all of aviation to zero.

   Bio-resin:  A bio-resin is a polymer (plastic) made from new carbon, like corn or sugar or soy. Bio-resin products look and act just like regular plastics, but they don’t depend on petroleum and are carbon neutral. Everything from disposable food packaging to telephones can be made from bio-resins. John Deere is building tractor bodies out of bio-resins, and Boeing is replacing old aircraft with new bio-resin bodies. And for us gardeners, bio-resin plant labels, plastic mulches and other products are coming to market and giving us all a way to participate in the green wave.