By Max
There is a lot of concern about the growing plastic pollution problem, and rightly so. Did you know?
* Plastic bottles take hundred or thousands of years to begin biodegrading
* 150 billion plastic beverage bottles are produced each year
* 70-80% of plastic bottles are not recycled
* 100 billion plastic bottles end up in landfills, roadsides, streams or oceans
* The average American consumes 167 bottles of water a year
* Bottled water is the second most popular beverage in the United States
* A majority of containers today are made from plastic
It seems that a lot of interest is being placed on bottled water, but take a look at the shelves where you shop; almost everything is packaged in plastic. Bottled water has become an easy target; many of us think that because our tap water is safe, it must be safe everywhere else. I wish that were true, most places in the world don’t have safe drinking water. We should be focusing on the pollution caused by all plastics and insist that plastics be designed to be sustainable. Sustainable plastics regardless of what it is made from, petroleum or plants should be biodegradable and designed to meet“Cradle to Cradle,” design criteria. A cradle to cradle product is made from something, used, reused, recycled and when its useful life is over, it returns to the earth as a harmless substance.
The problem is that we consumers are confused we don’t understand what is biodegradable, what is compostable, what is the carbon foot print, etc? Market experts know we’re confused and have designed their campaigns to keep us that way. Here’s an example, Polylactic acid or polylactide (PLA)is a plastic made primarily from corn but can be made from other plants, is marketed as biodegradable and compostable. Making plastics from corn may sound like the perfect utopian answer for solving all our plastic pollution problems, but everything in PLA land isn’t what it seems to be. PLA made from corn increases use of pesticides, is made from genetically altered corn, reduces food crops, raises food prices, and does not biodegrade any quicker than standard plastic in a landfill. A huge problem with PLA is that it isn’t easily recycled and for proper disposal, it must be processed in a commercial composting site. There aren’t many commercial composting sites here in the U.S. and some that do exist won’t accept PLA that is made from genetically altered corn. The bottom line is that PLA can’t be composted in your backyard compost pile and with the limited number of commercial sites here in the U.S., most PLA will end up in the garbage dump where it will languish for thousands of years, right along with other plastics.
Beware spin masters, consumers are getting smarter and we want products that don’t harm us or our future generations.
Max
http://www.ensobottles.com