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GREENPEACE STUDY SLAMS `DEGRADABLE' PLASTICS

JANE NORMAN
  03/15/1990
Gannett News Service

WASHINGTON - Consumers who purchase degradable plastic bags or diapers touted by manufacturers as environmentally safe are falling victim to a "scam'' by the plastics industry, members of the international environmental group Greenpeace charged Wednesday.

The charge was denied by industry representatives, who said the study was not supported by other research.

In a 97-page report issued at a news conference here, Greenpeace members said there is "no good evidence'' that degradable plastics - many of which are made with corn starch - are better for the environment than regular plastic bags.

In fact, the degradable bags might be worse, said scientist Barry Commoner, one of the authors of the study. The plastic in the degradable bag breaks up into little bits in landfills, and that means toxic additives in the plastic may be released faster than they would be by a regular bag, he said.

``There are hundreds of additives used in plastics, many of them in bags, and quite a few of those additives are carcinogenic,'' said Commoner, director of the Center for the Biology of Natural Systems in New York, where the study was prepared.

Members of a trade group representing plastics manufacturers, processors and the National Corn Growers Association attended the Greenpeace news conference and later denied their bags are harmful.

"What this was was a broad-brushed condemnation of new technology,'' said George Makrauer , chairman of the Degradable Plastics Council and president of Amko Plastics in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Makrauer said there are "no toxic compounds'' in degradable plastics and "their degradation is cleaner than the degradation of paper.'' He said the report cites no new scientific studies and ``contradicts 15 years of research in Europe and America.''

Alan Kemper, president of the National Corn Growers Association, has called similar charges by other environmental groups "totally off target and grossly irresponsible.'' Kemper said degradable plastics are a ``technological breakthrough'' that will ease the landfill crisis.

The Greenpeace report, on the other hand, contends they are nothing more than a clever marketing ploy by "cynical'' manufacturers eager to capitalize on consumer concern for the environment. The bags typically bear slogans such as "We Care About our Environment'' and "Engineered for the Environment.''

Manufacturers are adding corn starch to plastic and calling the result "biodegradable,'' the report says. But "the plastic itself, which generally comprises more than 90 percent of the material, is not biodegradable,'' Greenpeace says.

In other cases, manufacturers are using "theoretical speculation and incomplete and poorly designed tests'' as evidence that their bags break down into fragments that can be consumed by micro-organisms in landfills, Greenpeace says.

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(Jane Norman writes for The Des Moines Register.)

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