Simeon Brody
Plastic pervades many areas of our modern lives and is incredibly useful, durable, cheap and easy for manufacturers to make into 'stuff' for consumers. I am not a particular 'fan' of plastic, as it is mostly made from oil, a non-renewable resource, but I have a balanced opinion as I do (we all do!) have a lot of useful objects made from it. I demonstrated my ambivalence in a recent letter to the York Press commenting on a petition to 'ban plastic bags', which I don't understand nor agree with... I think that taxing them would be better, as in Ireland where a 15 tax to the consumer had reduced use by 80%. The issues are that we use millions of them, mostly only once, and throw them away where they add to landfill, or if we throw them around, they may become a litter-item, caught in a tree or hedge (the Irish call them 'Witches Knickers'!) or get swept out to sea where they look uncannily like jellyfish to unfortunate jellyfish-eating turtles and birds. So it would be better if we used fewer of them, reused them many times and disposed of them properly. My friend in America says she can take her old ones to a recycling point... why can't we do that here?
Some plastic is made from renewable materials, the compost caddy liners I put on my home compost heaps are made from corn starch, although the issues surrounding the use of food materials (in this case sweetcorn) to make non-food items (including biofuels) are helping to put up the price of food... Other plastic has an additive called d2w which makes it 'degradable' in air after a set length of time, so refuse sacks may be designed to last for 18 months but bread bags start to fall apart in just a few weeks.
However, there is another side to plastic which is less well known which is also to do with some of the additives. Some plastic has phthalates in it, which soften it or make it flexible. Some reports link these chemicals with cancer and possible hormone disruption. Then there's DEHA and BPA which may also be less than healthy if ingested.... and these chemicals may leach out of plastics if they are chewed, heated, or re-used repeatedly. Unfortunately, the internet is awash with conflicting reports... some research indicates that there are potential problems, other industry-supported information tells readers that the 'myths are bunk' and there is no problem whatsoever. So I don't know the truth, and I'm not a chemist, but I will keep my 'ear to the ground', and will report on any new findings.
The information we should find easy to understand from the plastics issue is that whether they are made from fossil oil or renewable oil, they all take resources to manufacture and transport and we should be careful with how much we use, how we use them and how they are disposed of.
I have several cloth, canvas and hemp bags which are aesthetically pleasing, do the job and are compostable once they have worn out. I wouldn't call them 'bags for life' as if they get damp they start to biodegrade, and they do wear thin during normal use. But they do last for years and years, which is more than many plastic carrier bags. So my 'green tip of the week' is to take a bag or bags with you whenever you go out, so you don't need to take a new one if you buy something and need something to carry it away in.
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