Yes, better plastics for healthier oceans, let's wish it will be better !
Plastic is versatile, cheap, and convenient. But in its conventional form, it is also “immortal”, sticking around for hundreds of years and causing pollutions. Former UK MP Michael Stephen proposes a better way to work with plastic.
Plastics are among the most popular materials in use today. Given the material’s versatility, it is little wonder that some 320 million tons of it are used around the world each year. Indeed, the recent holidays left many with a mountain of plastic products and packaging. But plastics also pose a serious environmental threat.
If not disposed of properly, plastics can lie or float around for decades. In addition to being harmful to terrestrial and aquatic life, free-floating plastics in oceans can adsorb toxins and break up into micro-plastics, which then enter the food chain.
It is this seeming immortality that has led governments to tax certain environmentally damaging plastic products or ban them altogether. Many governments are also encouraging better waste management, and the reuse, redesign, and recycling of plastic products.
This is prudent policymaking. But while taxes, bans, and waste-management policies will reduce the problem of plastic pollution, they will not solve it.
And, because plastics are made from a byproduct of oil refining, a ban would have little or no impact on hydrocarbon extraction, either. What taxes and bans will do is deprive the poorest people of a useful and inexpensive material.
The fact is that, despite the best efforts of well-intentioned lawmakers and nongovernmental organizations, thousands of tons of plastic waste are still entering the environment, particularly the oceans, every day. Clearly, a better approach is needed.
Some governments and companies have been persuaded that “bio-plastics” – which are derived partly from biomass like cornstarch – are the solution. But this argument is flawed: bio-plastics are very expensive and energy-intensive to produce, and still contain large amounts of material derived from oil.
Moreover, recycling bio-plastics requires that they be separated from ordinary plastic. Such polymers are tested to biodegrade, but only in the particular conditions found in industrial composting. In other words, while this technology might sound appealing, it will not solve the problem of plastic litter seeping into the environment.
sourced from :http://www.eco-business.com/opinion/better-plastics-for-healthier-oceans/
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