Thanks for the replys. This is a real "bummer" of a subject. I am still none the wiser.
I had the following email from Greenpeace.
-----Original Message-----
Subject: Bio-plastics
Hello
I could not find anything on your site about bio-plastics. Do you have
an official opinion on these products?
More importantly, can all plastic products be replaced by bio plastics, and
is it best for the planet to do so?
Regards
Chalk
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Greenpeace Dear Chalk,
Thank you for this email. Bioplastics are a very complicated area. The
latest (third) generation are genuinely biodegradable, so they solve one
environmental problem, but they create a problem for recyclers if they
are mixed into other plastics, and there are people who think the
methane produced by their decomposition makes them less environmentally
friendly than plastic. A further problem is that most bioplastic
currently comes from the US, which means that it is at least partly made
from GM maize.
I would imagine that it's more or less impossible to produce a
bioplastic which is biodegradable and can still perform the same roles
as the most durable toughened plastics, but it might be the case that it
is more sustainable to make non-biodegradable plastics from corn starch
than from oil. I'm afraid I really can't give you a knowledgeable answer
about all plastics which involves predicting the development of
bioplastics over quite a distance, so 'dunno' is my answer to that one.
Whether, assuming it is possible, it would be good for the planet I
rather doubt, as it would probably involve using large areas of land to
grow the necessary crops, which would have lots of harmful knock-on
effects, such as driving up the price of food. It would also reduce the
demand for oil, which might reduce the price, which would probably be a
bad thing.
Greenpeace do not have an official position on any of this as yet, but I
imagine that our approach would probably follow the 'reduce, re-use,
recycle' formula, where the number one task is to remove unnecessary
plastic items from the market, the second is to make the remainder
reusable (this would more often than not mean switching to another more
durable material - glass for bottles, cotton or hemp for bags, etc. -
and only then would you consider whether you wanted the remaining
plastics to be recyclable as plastic or as compost.
Regards,
Graham Thompson
Supporter Services
Greenpeace UK |
If they don't know, who does?
Any one know the email addy for the government bloke in charge of this sort of thing?
Chalk