This was an ornament I printed roughly 6 years ago. Being a Christmas ornament it spent most of those 6 years stored in my roof space.
Being in Australia this would have been subject to average temperatures of 30 to 35 degrees c but also peaks across summer approaching 70 degrees c. Also in high humidity.
The PLA crumbles into tiny pieces at the softest touch.
I thought it was interesting that PLA would start to break down in these conditions.
Not really, it is considered compostable in industrial composting conditions. It will not degrade at a reasonable timeframe in natural conditions and will basically just remain micro plastic.
yep sadly PLA being ok for the environment is a big ol myth unless it is either turned back into filament or properly recycled / industrially composted