SAN FRANCISCO, June 24, 2007
A Wonder Material You Can't Get Rid Of
Plastics Are Durable And Flexible, But They Stick Around For A Long, Long Time
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Play CBS Video Video Saving The Planet In Style Designer Anya Hindmarch's $10 tote bags are inspiring British shoppers to forgo paper and plastic in favor of reusable canvas. Charlie D'Agata reports.
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Even though many kinds of plastic, like these bottles, can be recycled, some, like plastic bags, can't — and remain on the planet for a long time. (AP PHOTO)
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Who's Who Live The Green Life Learn how you can live in a more environmentally conscious way.
Babe predicts the rising costs of oil and natural gas — the raw materials of plastics — will encourage manufacturers to use more recycled content without the need for new laws. But right now we seem to be finding more and more ways to use more and more plastic.
"One out of every three servings of water now comes from a bottle in the United States. And this is apparently how we're increasingly hydrating ourselves — with these big packs of petroleum-wrapped water," author Dan Imhoff said.
Imhoff believes far too many things come wrapped in plastic. His book "Paper of Plastic" takes aim at what he considers over-packaging.
The problem is that packaging is now a big part of the global economy: low-priced imports are protected by all that plastic for shipping, and the big boxes make them both attractive on the shelves and too bulky to shoplift.
"It certainly catches your eye," Imhoff said. "But what are you gonna do with it when you get it home — I mean, if you safely can get this thing open?"
When you finally get the packaging off, Imhoff said it goes in the trash and then it will be around for the next 1,000 years.
Indeed, when plastic is thrown away, it doesn't just go away. Far out in the Pacific Ocean, where currents carry floating waste, plastic is now more plentiful than plankton. Along coastlines, seabirds are turning up dead - their bellies literally stuffed with it. In landfills, there are concerns about long-term pollution as plastic decomposes. All reasons why just last week, the city government of San Francisco announced it would stop buying bottled water.
And remember all those bags? San Francisco's leaders have calculated that a plastic bag which costs a supermarket just a penny to buy costs the public seventeen cents to deal with as litter. So the city has moved to ban them from big chain stores and wants to replace them with biodegradable bags made from corn starch.
Ironically, plastic bags were first introduced as an Earth-friendly alternative to paper. The discussion has left many shoppers wondering just how to respond when asked "Paper or plastic?"
"Really, the easy answer is just neither," Imhoff said. "Neither paper nor plastic. Bring your own bag, bring something that's reusable. Have a whole stash of these reusable bags — you'll give them to your grandkids, they'll last forever!"
Chances are, they may thank you, because as we've seen, little things have a way of adding up.
© MMVII, CBS Interactive, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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See all 26 CommentsA perfect follow-up story to your June 24 Sunday Morning feature on glutting our landfills with plastic would be a presentation of Project C.U.R.E., the largest distributor of donated medical supplies and equipment in the world. With less than a 2% overhead every week of the year we ship two forty-foot ocean going cargo containers worth nearly a total of $1M wholesale value to emerging nations, 106 countries to date. This amounts to a yearly environmental benefit to the United States of 3.1 million cubic feet of landfill space -- Equivalent to 125 homes, 2500 square feet in size, packed floor to ceiling with medical supplies. We need more medical equipment and supplies to fill our containers which provide health and hope to the 22.8 million people most medically deprived world-wide. If you'd like an interview or more information, please contact Heidirickels@projectcure.org.
Thanks, Barbara O. Jacobsen, Angel Ambassador
www.projectcure.org
So what? that's what the dump is FOR- bury your trash, so it stays in a hole in the ground forever- BFD!
Posted by newster1 at 12:08 AM : Jun 25, 2007
+ report abuse
Whilst the world has such incredibly selfish anti social persons, [MORONS] as obviously is newster1, no matter how hard the rest of us try to do what is best for all, these fools will always contiue to undo any good done by others.
If only there were more like Ecuadoriana and cgesuaido.
Ah, see THAT'S what I have trouble with! I am grateful to be living in a country where I don't have to struggle daily for food just to survive. As much as I have issues with our government, I never fear that they are controlling the populace by with holding food, water, medicines.
But here in this land of endless glutoney & assumption of entitlement we consider what food we don't eat to be "garbage". A bruised spot on the apple? Throw it away. A wormy tomato- garbage. I juice bruised fruit, compost the rest. And I count my blessings & repay the earth for its generous bounty.
Very good point. There is a difference between garbage and trash. Trash is usually the non-food goods and garbage is usually the food products. That's why they call garbage disposals "garbage disposals" and not trash disposals. We as a nation of the "throw away society need to think about what we put out for collection, because we will run out of room to dispose of it. Big cities like NYC have to have their garbage put on barges and taken somewhere else, because they don't have the room to "bury" it anymore. I see devices in the not to distant future that will incinerate our trash/garbage and give us the opportunity to recycle it into heating fuel. I think the EPA has a strangle hold on that project right now.
You made a good point, cgesualdo. I just find that for my family the least amount of stuff we buy produces the least amount of trash. That's the hub of the problem for most americans- they can't stop buying new stuff. Then what to do with the old? Just throw it out.
We don't find a need to replace everything just because it's no longer in style. I have refinished & sold (or donated) many no longer needed items. Old clothes that are beyond wear & repair get made into cleaning rags or donated to animal shelters. The list is endless if we really try to rethink our "just toss it out" ways.
Why is liguid in the trash cans anyway? That's something I don't understand. I never put any liquid in the cardboard box I use for trash (I also have a recycle bin for any paper, glass & cans). What is wet that people are throwing out? I'm not being a "wise arse"- I really don't know. If it's food scraps why isn't it being composted? Even if one doesn't have a yard, there are community gardens who are happy to have coffee grounds, egg shells, vegetable scraps, etc for their compost. Even many schools have gardens that the kids help tend as part of their curriculum.
I just have one other comment, aimed at ecuadoriana's comment about what people did before plastic bags. People simply dumped their trash as it. They fed anything that might be construed edible to the pigs and burned the rest. Fire codes and the FDA these days would present a problem for these methods today. Even if you simply dumped your trash in your dumpster or individual trash container, the trucks that pick them up will simply turn the container upside-down and rain your unbound trash upon your neighborhood. Think about all the liquid waste that would end up in our lakes and rivers and drinking water sources because it wasn't contained. I wish we could go back to the way we used to do things, but we're going to have to move forward, not backward, to solve this problem.
We treat the earth like a garbage dump. Yet it is the origins of our birth (from the clay & all that) & our final place of rest.
I don't know about you but I certainly wouldn't want to rest for eternity in a land fill.
If they wanted to build a landfill on top of one of your loved ones you'd scream & fight it I am sure.
"NOT in MY back yard!" is the battle cry of all those selfish peole who want to toss their trash at will- but want it to end up somewhere else, out of sight out of mind.
Yes we are all "Out of our minds"!
or them five babies what burned up cause theire mommas left em with two 8 yr olds so they could go party or whatever at the bar?
they put all them bodys in plastic bags!
it keeps body fluids an th smell of burnt skin from leakin out in the transport vans...
So what? that's what the dump is FOR- bury your trash, so it stays in a hole in the ground forever- BFD!
Anyway...
Perhaps, if our congress weren't so bought by various interest groups...
...hemp would actually be widely used as a raw material for manufacturing!
The future is HEMP for manufacturing! Europeans, once again, are decades ahead of us on this issue as well.
http://www.bestlifeonline.com/cms/publish/travel-leisure/Our_oceans_are_turning_into_plastic_are_we.shtml
Or, enter into your search engine the name of the article:
"Our oceans are turning into plastic. Are we?"
The picture of the sea turtle on that web page says it all.
"The White House is full of trash that needs to be thrown out. Not much recycling value though." Posted by long_rider at 11:27 AM : Jun 24, 2007
long_rider, that's a good one!
Although I envision BushWhacked making a lovely table lamp, book end or door stop. I do press flowers for crafts. He's make a good dead weight!
"So what do individuals put their garbage in then if not plastic bags? Anybody have suggestions for something that is liquid proof and can be sealed tight?" Posted by ginetta11 at 03:03 PM : Jun 24, 2007
The biggest question each of us needs to ask ourselves is: What is it I'm actually considering "garbage"?
I have a juicer to make my own fresh juices every day. No need for all them plastic bottles. I carry the juice in my reusable glass jars. The pulp from the juicing process isn't garbage- it goes right into the compost for the garden where I grow all my own vegetables so I don't need to buy the plastic wrapped or canned at the store (then I freeze them). Don't buy pre made foods at all- everything from scratch- much healthier, tastes better, so much cheaper!
The parts of the food that one doesn't eat is still part of the food that was a gift from the earth. How can we call the peelings of a potato "garbage" when it was part of something that gave us life? (cont)
The amount of trash this 3 person family generates per week barely fills a small cardboard carton. I take them from stores that are throwing them out & I use them to put my trash in. No plastic bags!
With a lot of heavy thinking about our personal impact on the planet, a bit of ingenuity & self sacrifice we could all turn this problem around.
We do not need plastic bags for trash. Think about what people did before the advent of plastic bags!
The amount of trash this 3 person family generates per week barely fills a small cardboard carton. I take them from stores that are throwing them out & I use them to put my trash in. No plastic bags!
With a lot of heavy thinking about our personal impact on the planet, a bit of ingenuity & self sacrifice we could all turn this problem around.
We do not need plastic bags for trash. Think about what people did before the advent of plastic bags!
Investing the bag snagger...
Correction:
Inventing the bag snagger...
We're American's you have to tell us a few hundred times before it sinks in.
Keep it up, CBS.
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