BUSINESS TODAY
Critics say degradable
plastic not all it's cracked up to be
Special to The Star (Washington Post)
03/18/1990
The Toronto Star
SUNDAY
Page F7
Manufacturers and
retailers who wrap their products in a biodegradable green flag are beginning
to run up against protests from environmentalists and government regulators
who question the validity of their claims.
In recent months
environmental advertising has become as widespread as health-related claims
during the 1980s or the words "New and Improved" in an earlier era.
It is "a bit like
a tidal wave of hype," said Minnesota Attorney General Hubert Humphrey
III.
Humphrey is part
of a task force of attorneys general from eight states that began hearings
last week aimed at setting common ground rules for manufacturers to follow
before making such claims. The issue has also attracted the attention
of the U.S. Federal Trade Commission and the Environmental Protection
Agency, both of which sent representatives to the hearings.
Just as the regulators
were focusing on the subject, so too was the environmental group Greenpeace,
which held a news conference in Washington to challenge the whole notion
of biodegradable plastics.
Although these products
break down into smaller bits, so far there is no evidence that the plastic
degrades in the same way that plant and animal products decompose, according
to a study for Greenpeace by the Center for Biology of Natural Systems
at Queens College, City University of New York.
Greenpeace joined
other environmental groups that have denounced the new "biodegradable"
plastics as a hoax designed to market garbage bags, disposable diapers
and magazine wrappers by playing on consumer fears about the environment.
"As far as I'm concerned,
there isn't a single product on the market that has the right to call
itself biodegradable," said Greenpeace's Barry Commoner.
The Greenpeace study
by Commoner and two colleagues looked at plastic products that have been
induced to break down more easily either by additives that make them lose
their flexibility in sunlight or by the addition of cornstarch to the
finished products. Both those techniques cause plastics to break into
smaller pieces more easily, but they do not break down into small enough
particles to biodegrade, said Commoner.
Coming to the industry's
defense is the already established Degradable Plastics Council, whose
chairman, George Makrauer, considers the charges unfair.
"Plastics can easily
be made to degrade quickly and safely under many different conditions,"
he said. He also said that plastics manufacturers should not be attacked
for trying to address environmental concerns.
Richard Burket, vice-president
of the Archer Daniels Midland Co., a leading producer of cornstarch additives,
said the company's tests on the products have not been under way long
enough to demonstrate the final result of the decomposition process.
"You can't go from
a strong material to nothing overnight. It takes a while," he said.
But the company's
studies show that the products break down in a way that will result in
a complete biodegradable decomposition, he said.
"I think the current
type of biodegradable plastics can be considered a hoax, but I think the
concept is quite valid," said Jan Beyea, senior scientist for the National
Audubon Society. Audubon Magazine replaced its brown paper wrappers with
a plastic wrapper and is experimenting with different types of products
that claim to degrade easily, he said.
When it comes to
deciding what to use, even the environmental groups admit the choice is
tough.
One disposable product
versus the other is not the issue, Commoner said.
For its part, Greenpeace
advises that consumers avoid both paper and plastic. Instead, the group
encourages people to put their groceries in a reusable cloth bag and their
garbage in a can.
WASHINGTON POST
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