Is it time to stop making plastic the villain?

[ShahdagMountains]

So, is change happening for the right reasons? Not according to some. Plastic, it turns out, is not evil. In fact, it has many positive social and environmental impacts on our lives. It extends the shelf life of food. It keeps transport costs down. David Bucknall, head of materials chemistry at Heriot-Watt University, warns that banning plastic would lead to much higher carbon emissions, the driver of climate change. And if there’s one issue that is hotter and more contentious than plastic, it’s climate change.

Authorities must have a holistic view of sustainability​

Take the humble plastic shopping bag. The UK has reportedly seen an 80 per cent reduction in single-use carrier bags since the introduction of the 5p charge. It’s a great figure. But an environmental impact study by the Environment Agency, published in 2015, concluded that a cotton shopping bag would have to be used 173 times before its carbon emissions were lower than using new shopping bags. That level of reuse was described as ambitious by the report. And it highlights just one example where less plastic could mean higher carbon emissions.

So this is not a simple problem with a simple solution. Deciding which sustainability measure to use in policymaking is extremely difficult. Plastic use is top of the agenda at the moment and is currently a bigger consideration than carbon footprint. But there are other measures and, if we only consider food products, we could just as easily focus on food waste, food miles and water usage, to name just three. Focus too much on cutting any one of these measures and the others could shoot up.

Is it time to stop making plastic the villain?

When it comes to sustainability and packaging, simply deciding to ban plastic is not enough, and could cause more problems.

www.raconteur.net

 

[pknopp]

We aren't going to ban plastics. You get a few odd rules here and there, but we aren't going to ban plastics.

 

[1srelluc]

Maybe if getting into packaging was not like breaking into Ft. Knox we could use a lot less of it.

I swear I've got so I have to use my Gerber game shears to get into some the packaging these days.

 

[ShahdagMountains]

I came upon this:

New process makes ‘biodegradable’ plastics truly compostable

A modified plastic (left) breaks down after just three days in standard compost (right) and entirely after two weeks. (UC Berkeley photo by Ting Xu) Biodegradable plastics have been advertised as one solution to the plastic pollution problem ...

news.berkeley.edu

 

[Matted Joybeard]

Life evolved in a plastic free biosphere which humans have thoroughly altered in the past few few decades where plastic production accelerated and continues to do so. It's found in all ecosystems, from pole to pole, in the clouds and the bottom of the deepest sea trenches. It's increasingly showing up in our bodies posing health challenges. This at a minimum places stress on health systems. This before considering ingestion is not limite to humans but all life that we depend up. There's no easy solution to removing it from the biosphere given it's spread and mass. That spread and accumulation will only increase as more of the existing and future produced plastic eventually breaks down. This is only the start of the problem. It gets increasingly worse from here.

 

[initforme]

Plastics in drinking water and in our bodies....no good. Nothing remotely positive about that. Plastic bags everywhere. Scattered across america like little tumors.

 

[luiza]

Plastics are a monumental danger area . They kill as they degrade.
You have not mentioned the toxic effect of nano particles

JUST FROM LEACHING :-
"Overview of the toxic effects of chemicals leaching from plastics. Plastics are made up of different chemical compositions, in which some are hazardous that can leach to the surroundings upon degradation. Plastics typically contain additives that can improve their properties, such as durability and elasticity. The leaching of these additives from plastics to the surrounding environment, not only causing harmful impacts to the aquatic environment, but also human health. For instance, bisphenol A (BPA), an industrial chemical that is widely used to make polycarbonate (PC) plastics and epoxy resin as lining layer of food and beverage containers. Studies reported that the leaching of BPA from food containers into the food and drinks can cause a series of diseases, including obesity and cardiovascular diseases. BPA also acts as a hormonal disruptor, imitating or blocking the production, action, and function of hormones in the human body. BPA also known to affect brain development in the womb, causing damage to the developing fetus. Polyvinyl chloride (PVC) polymers and plastisol generally contain phthalate esters as plasticizers, in order to increase their durability and flexibility. Human exposure to phthalate esters has been shown to associate with abnormal sexual development and changes in the levels of sex hormones. Additionally, studies have demonstrated that some phthalate esters such as butyl benzyl phthalate (BBP) and di-2-ethylhexyl phthalate (DEHP) can increase tumor incidence in human, representing potential carcinogens.

 

[initforme]

Plastics are a monumental danger area . They kill as they degrade.
You have not mentioned the toxic effect of nano particles

JUST FROM LEACHING :-
"Overview of the toxic effects of chemicals leaching from plastics. Plastics are made up of different chemical compositions, in which some are hazardous that can leach to the surroundings upon degradation. Plastics typically contain additives that can improve their properties, such as durability and elasticity. The leaching of these additives from plastics to the surrounding environment, not only causing harmful impacts to the aquatic environment, but also human health. For instance, bisphenol A (BPA), an industrial chemical that is widely used to make polycarbonate (PC) plastics and epoxy resin as lining layer of food and beverage containers. Studies reported that the leaching of BPA from food containers into the food and drinks can cause a series of diseases, including obesity and cardiovascular diseases. BPA also acts as a hormonal disruptor, imitating or blocking the production, action, and function of hormones in the human body. BPA also known to affect brain development in the womb, causing damage to the developing fetus. Polyvinyl chloride (PVC) polymers and plastisol generally contain phthalate esters as plasticizers, in order to increase their durability and flexibility. Human exposure to phthalate esters has been shown to associate with abnormal sexual development and changes in the levels of sex hormones. Additionally, studies have demonstrated that some phthalate esters such as butyl benzyl phthalate (BBP) and di-2-ethylhexyl phthalate (DEHP) can increase tumor incidence in human, representing potential carcinogens.

Great post. Some are clueless to environmental hazards. Look the other way. Industry must be allowed to pollute.

 

[skye]

 

[Crick]

View attachment 941687

The plastic wrapper is made from corn starch and will break down in sun and rain within two weeks.

 

[skye]

The plastic wrapper is made from corn starch and will break down in sun and rain within two weeks.

oh really? ok

 

[Crick]

oh really? ok

I haven't the faintest idea. That string of text was just an image meant to be taken as a thematic piece of graphic entertainment.

 

[skye]

I haven't the faintest idea. That string of text was just an image meant to be taken as a thematic piece of graphic entertainment.

hmmm ok....so the plastic wrapper is still plastic then?

 

[Crick]

hmmm ok....so the plastic wrapper is still plastic then?

Who knows. It's your picture. Such materials do exist and they look just like plastic wrapping.

 

[JLW]

If it pollutes or is harmful to the environment, you can bet conservatives will be for it.

 

[Crick]

hmmm ok....so the plastic wrapper is still plastic then?

It was a comment on the shallowness of your graphic meme posts.

 

[elektra]

Plastics in drinking water and in our bodies....no good. Nothing remotely positive about that. Plastic bags everywhere. Scattered across america like little tumors.

Bullshit
I never see plastic bags

Single use, i use mine for trash, to uses

Trash gets buried, which is where plastic came from

 

[elektra]

If it pollutes or is harmful to the environment, you can bet conservatives will be for it.

Coservatives created the EPA, you idiot

 

[Harpy Eagle]

This alone is a good enough reason to limit our use of plastic.

Great Pacific Garbage Patch

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is a collection of marine debris in the North Pacific. Marine debris is litter that ends up in the ocean, seas, and other large bodies of water.

education.nationalgeographic.org