Materials and Waste

Replacing plastic for glass and metal is a bad idea

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There are some who want to replace single use plastics with single use aluminum or glass containers, noting the greater recycablity of both materials. But I think it’s a bad idea:

  • Glass and metal, once produced last forever in the environment.
  • A glass or metal object doesn’t just rot, it also doesn’t doesn’t burn. A discarded plastic bottle may be incinerated, burned in a burn barrel or campfire or be destroyed by a wildfire
  • Plastics, especially outside of a landfill have a much shorter life than metals or glass thanks to the combustible nature of hydrocarbons
  • Metals and glass discarded can lead to cuts in children and adults when they step on the glass, are working in the woods or swimming in the creek
  • Metals and glass discarded can puncture car tires both on and off the road
  • Metals and glass discarded can get into pasture and cause painful death from hardware disease in cows and other livestock
  • Traditional deposit for recycling programs do increase recycling rates but still don’t eliminate litter or even ensure most of the material is recycled
  • Recycling is great but even with glass and metal which is said to be 100% recyclable, material is lost when the metals and glass are melted down for reprocessing
  • Glass and metal makes a lot more sense with true rewash and reuse programs – like milk delivered by a milk man
  • Milk in glass is colder and purer
  • As would be other beverages such as soda or beer produced and distributed in reused growlers

Old Unopened Beer Car

The Poison Plastic.

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"You know PVC and you don't know PVC: "New car smell? New shower curtain smell? That's the smell of poisonous chemicals off-gassing from the PVC."

Vote expected to limit single-use plastics after bill error

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Vote expected to limit single-use plastics after bill error

New York lawmakers said Wednesday they expect to pass legislation at the end of the week to limit single-use plastic packaging in the state after a bill printing error forced the measure to be amended for the second night in a row, and despite continued pushback from state business leaders.

Despite the unexpected procedural error, senior staff of legislative leaders have negotiated the Packaging and Recycling Infrastructure Act for days to reach a two-way agreement without the Executive Chamber. It was first updated late Monday and would mandate companies with a net income over $5 million reduce their plastic packaging products by 30% in 12 years. It would also prohibit 17 several toxic chemicals commonly in food packaging.

"We're finding microplastics in people's bodies," Assembly sponsor Deborah Glick told Spectrum News 1. "We don't know what the long-term health costs are going to be, so this is a common-sense, staged, stepped program to reduce packaging, share the cost, save our municipalities' and taxpayers' dollars and at the same time, ensure that businesses are keeping up with the demands of the market place."

It signed into law, the measure will create an Extended Producer Responsibility system in the state and require producers of packaging cover the costs of consumer waste and reduce used toxins. The system would charge companies that continue to use the single-use products a fee as the materials threaten to overrun landfills and are known to be harmful to human health.