plastic

An article recently published on Food Production Daily has reported that despite the calls to action issued by health organization Breast Cancer UK, the British government still maintains that bisphenol A is safe for consumers in food packaging materials. According to correspondant Joe Whitworth, despite the fact that the UK Food Standards Agency continues to refer to a small selection of studies which claim that the chemical is safe, a growing body of research suggests the opposite is true.

A study conducted by the Central Pollution Control Board of Ahmadabad, India during the year 2010-11 has given the Minister of State for Environment and Forests disturbing data upon which to base further political action. The study, which took survey of plastic trash data across 60 cities, concluded that the total figure representing India's plastic waste in just one day amounts to 15,342. 46 tons. Out of this overwhelming sum, 9,205 tons are gathered and recycled, and 6,137 tons remain uncollected.

Despite what clever marketing would have consumers believe -- that new, "silken" tea bags are superior to their paper predecessors -- Laurie Balbo of the Green Prophet sheds light on the new trend with the unfortunate truth: supposedly "silk" tea bags are often made of plastic materials which leach into hot tea when submerged. According to Balbo's article:

Waitrose, an upscale English supermarket chain, has recently announced that it plans to reduce the amount of packaging it uses by 50% by the year 2016 -- a huge step which would significantly impact the amount of waste consumers are left with from the items they purchase. In an article published on the Sustainable Brands news page, contributor Mike Hower writes that Waitrose's new consumer pledge will significantly overhaul the store's current range of products in order to meet its goal.

A grim headline from the Times of India reports that India's Supreme Court has emphasized that the country is a "plastic time bomb" due to the sheer volume of plastic it disposes of on a daily basis, with Delhi alone producing 689.5 tonnes of plastic refuse per day. According to the article's writer, Dhananjay Mahapatra, the amount of plastic discarded daily in India is even more shocking. Piles of plastic dot the landscape in the form of permanent mountains which never biodegrade and build up as the country produces more and more waste. He writes:

The Raw Story reported on Thursday last week that a 4.5 ton sperm whale washed up on a beach in Spain last week dead and in an extremely emaciated state, and upon further examination, it was found to have died of eating plastic. According to the story written by the Agence France-Presse, the whale, which washed ashore last year, was found to to have ingested over 17 kilograms (which equates to 37 pounds) of garbage, which blocked its stomach and caused the animal to starve to death.

An article on the Guardian today shared photos from a recent deep sea exploration near the Cayman islands, in the Cayman Trough. The exploration via unmanned vehicle was meant to shed light on the mysteries of the often unseen ocean, but the photos from the mission have found something more upsetting than the anticipated beauty of the deep sea floor: litter. According to Jon Copley, one of the researchers behind the mission, images from the dive with the Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) Isis uncovered trash on the sea floor.

An article on Grist.com has shared the story of a new development that may prove promising for the efforts currently being made to reduce packaging in consumer products. The article, written by contributor Sarah Miller, shares the news of an art and design school graduate who has created dissolving packaging out of non-toxic paper materials to reduce excess waste. According to the article:

An article published via Waste & Recycling News yesterday shared the story of a group of scientists who feel they have a solution to the ever-present problem of keeping plastics out of  the ocean: classifying it as toxic waste. According to the article, this group of scientists is calling upon the 1989 Montreal Protocol, which classified chlorofluorocarbons as toxic waste and achieved a successful result in limiting their presence in the environment. 

In an enlightening article written by the co-founder of a green material science company, Eben Bayer discusses the future of packaging and plastic, and insists that the two are not necessarily linked. Bayer is a part of an organization called Ecovative -- a company which is dedicated to finding sustainable alternatives to plastic packaging. While recycling is an option resorted to by many as the "solution" to the plastic problem, Bayer points out that the process of recycling plastic requires a high energy input, and yields lower grade plastic as a result.