Wednesday, March 24, 2010

DOW Rips...Itself!

Que lastima!

In this plastics-industry rag article, DOW chemical admits to the sham that biodegradable plastic are – and that they “are not a solution to our problem”. Aha! Clear admission that 1) their products are a “problem”, and that 2) phoney-baloney “biodegradable plastics” are still just a pipe-dream…

Is it just too difficult to simply make permanent, durable stuff out of plastic and avoid the instant-trash, convenience-based throw-aways that single-use plastics are? Instead, the plastics manufacturers prefer to dump the responsibility of plastics waste and litter recovery back to us through “increased rates of recovery and recycling of plastics”.

On the fleeting bright side of this problem of plastic pollution, DOW suggests that, “the industrial sector has been guilty of 'insufficient participation' in finding a solution”. Wow - a big and rare revelation by The Industry - let there be much rejoicing!

This is all in reaction to Mexico’s single-use plastic bag ban, which the plastics industry claims is being poorly managed. Hey, bienvenidos a Mexico, Jorge – maybe planning to avoid the pollution situation that you’ve caused for an entire country should have been thought out before this breaking point, instead of after this “populist measure”, ya think? Get used to “populist measures”, we have them planned all over the globe. ;)

Mexico is feeling the brunt of plastics pollution, and is responding with legislation – perhaps a last resort. But when dealing with an unneighborly adversary like the plastics people, ya gotta do whatcha gotta do…unfortunately, Mexico does not have the infrastructure to recycle (whilst whistling a happy tune, as the plastics industry thinks it happens) the volumes of plastic throw-aways that are foisted upon them by manufacturers, so are attempting to legislate the problem down to controllable levels.

Buenas Suerte!