Shangai - Don’t ban plastic bags: Use new tech to make them biodegradable

Don’t ban plastic bags: Use new tech to make them biodegradable

Fonte: Shangai Daily, 18/01/2008

http://www.shanghaidaily.com

IT is not necessary to ban plastic bags. The only problem is that plastic does last too long after the end of its useful life.

Our technology turns ordinary plastic into oxobiodegradable plastic that can be recycled but will otherwise degrade and disappear, leaving no fragments or harmful residues.

Plastic is made from naptha, a byproduct of oil refining, so nobody is importing oil to make plastic bags. They are importing it to make fuel for engines, and would otherwise be wasting the naptha.

The process of making paper bags causes 70 percent more atmospheric pollution than plastic bags. Paper bags use 300 percent more energy to produce, and the process uses huge amounts of water and creates very unpleasant organic waste. When they degrade they emit methane and carbon dioxide.

Reusable shopping bags are not the answer either. They are much thicker and more expensive, and a large number of them would be required for the weekly shopping of an average family. They are not hygienic unless cleaned after each use.

While sometimes called "Bags for Life" they have a limited life, depending on the treatment they receive, and they then become a very durable form of litter.

Plastic made from crops is not the answer, because it cannot be recycled, it is much too expensive, and it emits methane in landfills.

Nor is there enough land or water to grow all the crops that would be required without pushing up the price of food for China ’s poorest people.

(Michael Stephen, chairman, Symphony Environmental Ltd, www.degradable.net )