7 replies to this topic

[didmac0]

Hi Friends,

We do our best to keep our family safe, and that means protecting our health as well as our environment. We exercise, eat right, recycle, it's all in a day's work. Unfortunately, sometimes it's not as simple as doing just those things. Recently, disturbing news has surfaced about the health and environmental impact of plastics. With plastic being everywhere in our daily lives, it's important to start reconsidering how and why we use it.

1) For Your Health: A commonly used additive is a plasticizer. Plasticizers, such as adipates and phthalates, soften plastics to be used in food packaging, teethers, toys, and many other household products. This becomes an issue when a plastic comes into contact with food. Traces of these chemicals can leach out of the plastic, exposing your family to their harmful effects.

2) For Your Planet: It's also important to consider the environmental impact of plastics. Unlike paper, glass, or wood, plastics aren't biodegradable or easily reusable. Now, consider the number of plastic items consumed by the average family in a week: water bottles, food containers, product packaging, and so on. Just about all of that creates an immense amount of waste with nowhere to go.

[kkala]

Some probably useful comments on the post of didmac0 are as follows.
1. The issue of plasticizers is not new. I can recall it in Greece around 1980. Plasticizers were considered even carcinogenic, especially for the plastic bottles containing edible oils. If I remember well, plastic bottles for these oils were banned from Greek market for a short period. I am not sure about it, but I had read a protest of that time, saying that even European Union used plastic bottles for oil. Then matter was forgotten and apparently settled. Probably stricter specs for plastic bottles to contain oil were legislated. Even so, is there any effective control on the plastic bottle quality? I doubt on it, concerning local conditions.
2. Used plastics are accumulated here more and more. Measures for recycling should have been taken since a long time. Biodegradable plastic bags were introduced in super markets and other shops about two years ago. I had visited Germany (Frankfurt) in 2000, where real care is given to recycling. Two things impressed me, according to discussions with colleagues there.
(α) There were no plastic bags in super markets, only paper bags (cloth bags or net was also used).
(β) Plastic bottles were replaced with glass bottles. But glass bottles could be recycled only 8 times only.
My son visited Germany in 2010 and realized that:
(α) Small biodegradable plastic bags were available in super markets.
(β) At least water was found plastic bottled in super markets.
So status seems to change with time, or it differs from one confederate state to another in Germany, at any case being environmentally much stricter than Greece.
At any case I would be indebted, if two queries of mine can be clarified.
(1) Is it correct that glass can be recycled only 8 times and why?
(2) I have read in newspaper that plastics are decomposed in thin fibers, eaten and inspired by man, animals, fish. Biological consequences are under investigation (but no good news is expected). Does this also concern the new biodegradable plastics?
Hopefully there will be an answer to the above.

Edited by kkala, 17 July 2011 - 05:56 AM.

[JMW]

WE ought to ask if glass is recyled or re-used.... re-use is much more efficient.
By imposing a bottle tax on all glass or plastic bottles, repayable as a bounty on recycled bottles we could revert to the old ways. In the UK milk was dleivered and sold in glass bottles. These would be collected and reused.
At one time wine was imported in bulk and bottled in the UK. The bottles would be recycled in the Uk. But when the cheaper wines started to be bottled at source the UK began to build a surplus of glass bottles.

Supermarkets have latched onto the environmental issues as a markting gimmick. They now all offer "bags for life" which they charge for and some also now charge for the thin biodegradable bags. This makes them look green.
However, while these bags are useful for bagging rubbish for waste disposal and hence replace the need to buy special bin bags, i.e. no real benefit, supermarkets now package more and more produce in plastics. The amount of plastic in the bags is far less than the plastci in the packaging for a punnet of strawberries. Once upon a time most fruit and veg was loose but now even bananas are pre bagged.
The most useful approach is to address this unnecessary and excessive packaging of goods in supermarkets.

[kkala]

Every country could reduce the amount of plastic waste, but effort here seems rather loose. Good wine is in glass bottles, but you will use a plastic bottle if you buy wine from a barrel. Milk is in plastic covered paper. Edible oil is in plastic bottles. Mineral water is in plastic bottles and there is high consumption of it during summer. All of them were in glass bottles fifty years ago. Transportation of glass bottles would be hard, but postponing it does not save the case.
I think European Union should decide whether plastic or glass bottles have to be used for liquids. I do not know whether "biodegradable" plastics (like the ones used in super market bags) can be used for bottles, and whether "biodegradable" plastics are really safe for the environment. However decision based on scientific research should be taken.
I have the feeling here that future generations will dearly pay what we have not tried to prevent.

[jklasers]

Negative health conditions are also associated with chemicals that leach from plastic containers. Plastics used in food packaging and cosmetic cases have been linked to chronic bronchitis, ulcers and liver dysfunction. Plastics used in water bottles have been tied to early-onset puberty as well as obesity and hyperactivity.

Edited by jklasers, 23 January 2013 - 11:15 PM.

[kkala]

Engineers have to see situations cold headed, but it may worth while looking at <http://www.midwayfilm.com/>, indirectly recommending collection of all small plastic parts. I have read in books and newspapers that these are eaten by animals and fish, causing intestinal blockage to them (a suffering death).

Everyday, we do our best to keep our family safe, and that means protecting our health as well as our environment. We exercise, eat right, recycle, it’s all in a day’s work. Unfortunately, sometimes it’s not as simple as doing just those things. Recently, disturbing news has surfaced about the health and environmental impact of plastics. With plastic being everywhere in our daily lives, it’s important to start reconsidering how and why we use it.