Middle School Students Say 'No More Styrofoam!'

Kids can seem to cut right through the point with clear thoughts and emotional appeal. Students from Thomas Starr King Middle School in Los Angeles prove that with their passion against plastic, in this case polystyrene, aka styrofoam.

The good folks at www.good.is recently featured their story of disposable lunch trays that are used at alarming rates. Large school districts can go through millions of them in one school year. Small steps can lead to big change. Check out the full story for their school project to raise awareness.

Biodegradable Plastics? (Welcome to Oxymoronville)

Think "Jumbo Shrimp!" or "Military Intelligence"...then consider biodegradable plastics. At this point, it's largely a green-washing feel-good factor, to get the gnarly corn compounds to biodegrade, they have to be mulched under tightly-controlled conditions...the same conditions under which proper bio-degradation of green waste must take place. In a word, they wont break down in a basic landfill - or your yard - any sooner than non-biodegradable plastics would.

It is, however, a start. :) Anyone that understands the degree to which we over-produce corn in this country (google "monoculture of corn"), it serves as another way to dispense with that gov't-subsidized over-production...ya think?

Some municipalities (San Diego, among others) are conducting pilot programs to test the viability of large-scale composting of corn-plastics - but think of the logistics...and of how many real plastic forks end up being tossed into the mulch pile...and come out w/o degrading. Just figuring out which plastic containers are currently accepted for recycle is already too complicated for many of us with good intentions, as the acceptance of those "acceptable" plastics vary from region to region.

That's just "one reporters opinion" - you are free to form your own - take time to read these two articles: one pondering the fine points of bio-plastics and another Mother Jones article about Ramani Narayan, a Michigan State professor of chemical and biochemical engineering who helped develop biodegradable corn-based plastic.

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!