Bioplastics, like biofuels, hit the poor
The replacement of oil-based plastic packaging with ‘bioplastics’ made from plants is generating greater environmental problems, as well as contributing to the severe global food crisis, The Guardian reported on Saturday.
Like swine flu out of China, wave after wave of enviro-hysteria has emanated from the USA, with Brit ecofreaks indiscriminately surfing every one. Leaving aside the global warming that has not been taking place for the last decade, waste is the issue that most exercises their sensibilities.
Bioplastics, made from edible crops, ticked all the ecofreak boxes: ‘sustainable’, ‘biodegradeable’, ‘compostable’ and ‘recyclable.’ About 200,000 tonnes of bioplastics were produced last year, and production is growing by 20-30 percent a year, Bioplastics are said to represent a carbon saving of 30-80 percent over oil-based plastics and to extend the shelf-life of food.
The industry is forecast to need several million acres of farmland within four years. Trouble is, all that acreage devoted to growing plants for biofuels and bioplastics has vastly increased the cost of staples, pushing the world’s poorest people to the brink of starvation. That was foreseen.
Noxious emissions
Also known was that bioplastics in anaerobic landfills release methane, a greenhouse gas 23 times more damaging than the CO2 that Al and the Goreites have demonised. Previously, the main sources of atmospheric methane were ruminants, swamps, and volcanoes. The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reported a sharp increase in global methane emissions last year
Bioplastics in anaerobic landfills release methane, a greenhouse gas 23 times more damaging than the CO2 that Al and the Goreites have demonisedThe main offender is corn-based packaging made with polylactic acid (Pla). Produced by NatureWorks, a US company, it looks identical to conventional plastic. NatureWorks is jointly owned by Cargill, the world’s second largest biofuel producer, and Teijin, one of the world’s largest plastic manufacturers.
Pla is used by some of the biggest supermarkets and food companies. Marks & Spencer uses it to package organic products. Sainsbury won’t use it because it is made from GM crops. Unjustified UK/EU hysteria about GM has also greatly contributed to current food price inflation.
‘The recycling industry in the UK has not caught up with other countries,’ said Snehal Desai, chief marketing officer for NatureWorks. ‘We need alternatives to oil. UK industry should not resist change. We should be designing for the future and not the past. In central Europe, Taiwan and elsewhere, NatureWorks polymer is widely accepted as a compostable material.’
Sort of beside the point, isn’t it? Feeding developed world eco-egos is starving the wretched of the earth. That’s the issue – everything else is nauseating hypocrisy.
