If honesty’s the best policy, it’s high time to rebrand plastics
Posted by staff / February 25, 2013 plastics
When introduced, plastics were the driving force behind creating our conveniently disposable culture, but we’re now paying for that convenience in the form of landfill waste, islands of non-degrading material swirling in the oceans and a growing problem that’s anything but disposable. Scientists are now saying it’s time that plastics got an image overhaul for the worse: as a hazardous material.
That simple adjustment, the scientists write in the journal Nature, could trigger sweeping changes in how environmental agencies clean up plastic waste, spur innovation in polymer research and replace problematic plastics with safer ones.
It isn’t just wildlife that’s suffering from our plastics use but humans as well since the microscopic particles they do break down into have been found in lung cancers and linked to other health issues.
Concerned scientists find hope in the success of past efforts, including the decreased use of CFCs after reclassification in 1989, and, let’s face it; nothing makes food packaging look less appealing than labeling it as toxic.
Full story at LA Times.
Photo credit: Fotolia
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