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? Danone converting some yogurt packaging to PLA
Posted on July 20, 2014 by DrRossH in Plastic Waste NewsDanone converting some yogurt packaging to PLA – News – Plastics News#email_sustain.
Global food giant Groupe Danone has converted about 5 percent of its yogurt packaging to bio-based polylactic acid and is evaluating other opportunities to expand its use of the material.
One cold read this and think this is a good direction to move in. This is probably what Danone would want readers to think. But in reality PLA offers no green solutions for the consumer. Just because the plastic is made from a plant based material doesn’t mean it will be any better n the disposal side. PLA is not biodegradable in landfills. Only in commercial compost facilities which consumers are highly unlikely to ever send their plastic waste too. Reading further down the article a glimpse of the reason for the change to PLA become apparent.
Four years ago, the only driver was that it would be a marketing angle for consumers interested in buying a “green” product, he said. Today, PLA also is starting to offer a more competitive financial prospect.
On a price per pound basis, PS is still cheaper, but because PLA packaging can be produced with a thinner wall and takes less space in shipping, it can be the same in a price per piece, Forowycz said.
Danone also sees the potential for PLA to offer greater price stability in the long run than a material based on petroleum.
Once again it is the cost saving to the manufacturer that drives these issues and nothing to do with protecting the planet from the plastic waste their products make. Remember this is the company that makes 5 million plastic bottles a day!
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