"What's green ... when it comes to plastic? "

The View from the Plastics Industry brings an interesting discussion about plastics...and their function in our economy...and life support system.

"Today there's a growing trend in many plastics end markets for what people are touting as "green" products. The question is, what's green?

Is degradability the answer? Or recycled content? Or a more complicated appraisal that factors in carbon dioxide, energy, solid waste and the difficult-to-define sustainability factor?

Initially, plastics processors and their suppliers will try to define it, and marketers will try to win points with whatever they're handed. Ultimately, the public will decide." Dan De Grassi

Key issues include:

Will biodegradable REALLY biodegrade in landfills? They didn't last time around...

Will compostable materials survive the recycling dilemma? (PET recyclers are struggling with PLA bottles in the recycled waste stream)

Will bioresins put strains on the world's food sources (mainly corn) that compete with energy applications (that are more lucrative)

Is the real problem a human behavioral problem of littering?

While recycled content reduces one generation of solid waste...what happens the next time around? Are recycled materials endlessly recyclable?

What about the energy conversion loss that comes from turning natural materials into highly processed materials? Would use of natural materials be a better energy saving process?


There are no easy answers when we stray very far from the natural cycle of regeneration.