May 2011 - Plastic Waste Solutions
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Styrofoam made Biodegradable
Posted on May 31, 2011 by DrRossH in Plastic Waste NewsMONTREAL StyroChem has launched a material that the firm says is the market’s first biodegradable expandable polystyrene. Montreal-based StyroChem made EVRgreen-brand EPS commercially available May 30. The firm has completed two successful test runs of the product at its Montreal plant...
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Coke joint venture shuts down food-grade PET recycling plant
Posted on May 5, 2011 by DrRossH in Plastic Waste NewsThe joint-venture PET recycling plant that Coca-Cola Co. opened with great fanfare two years ago in Spartanburg, S.C., has stopped making food-grade recycled PET, but hopes to resume that process sometime this summer. Read More April 11 2011 Part 1,...
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Debunking the Myths of the Paper vs. Plastic Debate, Part I
Posted on May 5, 2011 by DrRossH in Plastic Waste NewsThere’s a lot of confusion surrounding the Great Bag Debate, much of it perpetuated by misinformation, common assumptions, and a whole lot of green washing. For years, it was thought that the better choice for the environment was paper, but...
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How many people today grab a takeaway coffee cup from the local cafe to drink on the go? We don’t know, but the number must be enormous.. Most every one of the above have a plastic top that will last 100s of years. Some cafes still use plastic cups that last a similar time. Is 10 minutes of coffee worth 100s of years of trash?
These items can be seen littering our gutters and on our streets all over the place. If they were all cardboard, they would still be littered, but they would, at least, be gone in a short time.
They do not need to be made of plastic.
On the way home from the gym last week, a distance of about 1 km (1/2 mile), I counted the items of plastic litter on the curb as I walked. In that short distance I counted 63 pieces of plastic litter. Plastic drink bottles, bottle tops, candy wrappers, plastic film, polystyrene fragments etc. That seemed to be a lot to me. I guess it is a generational thing. Our parents would have been horrified to see that amount, whereas it seems to go unnoticed by our youth of today. In another 20 years how many pieces will there be on this stretch, -- 200? What will today’s youth think of that new amount then when they are older? Will their children be so readily accepting of a higher amount of litter?