WHY USE OXO-BIODEGRADABLE PLASTICS?
THE CYCLE OF LIFE
Millions of years ago, vast numbers of tiny algae and plankton lived in the ocean.
Countless generations of them lived, died, and settled to the bottom of the sea. Aeons
passed, layers of stone formed over them, continents drifted, and the bodies of these organisms
became oil deposits in the ground. Today, human beings extract that oil from the ground, and use
it as fuel and as the basis for plastic. 
These organisms were once part of the cycle of life. 
When locked into plastic, they have been, up until now, removed from that cycle of life, decay, and new life. Now we can complete that cycle, and return the millions of tons of plastic that we create, use, and discard to the cycle of life. Thanks to an additive that slowly breaks down the disposable plastic items that we use, plastic can be biodegraded and become part of the soil that nourishes the plants that keep our planet's atmosphere in balance. The addition of this additive turns ordinary plastic into oxy-biodegradable plastic. BioGreen Products sells disposable items made of oxy-biodegradable plastic.
Over 500 billion plastic bags are created and discarded every year. That is millions of tons worth of plastic, clogging our landfills, choking our oceans, useless to our planet's ecology. Oxo-biodegradable plastics are a solution to that problem. There are two alternatives to oxo-biodegradable plastics: Hydro-biodegradable plastics, and paper.
SHOULD WE MAKE FOOD INTO PLASTIC?
Some say we should make food into plastic since it is a renewable resource that can be biodegraded. This kind of plastic is called hydro-biodegradable plastic. It is made out of wheat, corn, or potatoes. Informally, it is known as 'spud-ware.'
At BioGreen Products, we feel that plastic shouldn't be made of food for two reasons. The first is that plastic is made from a part of oil that used to be discarded as a waste product. Scientists discovered that this waste product could be made into a useful material, plastic. Why should we not use this previously ignored waste product?
The second is that we need that food to feed the poor and starving millions in the third world. If we turn that food into plastic and into fuel for our vehicles, it becomes more expensive-too expensive for the poor peoples in the third world.
(It may seem far fetched to claim that turning grain into plastic bags and wrapping is a threat to the survival of the world's poorest people, but a little math demonstrates the threat very clearly. 13.5 million tons of plastic bags and wrappers are disposed of in the US alone every year. That weight in food is enough food to feed 61,000,000 people for a year.
The proof: Calories per pound of grain=1500. Calories per ton of grain=3,000,000. Man days per ton of grain at 1800 calories per person=16,666. Man years per ton of grain=4.56. 13,500,000 tons x 4.56=61,660,000 man years of calories.
Now multiply the amount of plastic bags and wrappers thrown away every year in the word-with the US throwing away 1/4 of the plastic bags and wrappers-61,000,000 x 4 = 246,240,000 man years of food would be turned into garbage bags and wrappings if those who advocate turning food into plastic bags are given their way. )
How bad is the food situation right now? Wheat prices are up 120%. Rice prices have risen 75%. 862 million people across the world are hungry, up from 852 million a year ago. Every day, almost 16,000 children die from hunger-related causes--one child every five seconds.
Food is simply too precious to be made into garbage bags and plastic spoons.
SHOULD WE USE SO MUCH PLASTIC?
Maybe not. In some cases, we can substitute permanent items for disposable ones. However, this is not always possible. As wasteful as it may seem to use disposable plastic utensils, they are a part of modern sanitation. Departments of health across the world enforce the use of either highly controlled dishwashing equipment with temperature control adequate to kill bacteria, or the use of disposable cups, plates, and cutlery.
Before modern sanitation, plagues swept the earth that killed millions. The humble plastic cup, knife, fork, and spoon are a part of our fight against food and water borne diseases-cholera, typhus, typhoid, salmonella, e-coli, and many more fatal diseases. When used to wrap up trash which contains food products or harmful chemicals, plastic bags also help prevent the contamination of our living spaces, our water supplies, and our food.
PAPER OR PLASTIC?
Trees turn carbon dioxide, which is a major cause of global warming, into oxygen, which we need to breathe. They also turn carbon into cellulose, the stuff of which they are made, removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
Global warming threatens us in many, many ways. Global warming is a threat to food production, because the poorest countries are in the tropics, and many of the crops there simply cannot tolerate higher temperatures than are currently found there. If global warming continues, the polar bear will surely become extinct.
Rising sea levels caused by global threaten low coastal areas with flooding, such as we have recently seen in Myanmar and Bangladesh. Hurricanes become more powerful, because it is high sea temperatures that cause hurricanes.
And of course, the two effects combine to increase the damage that we see in costal areas when the higher sea level is combined fiercer winds and more rain-leading to situations such as the devastation of New Orleans.
Another problem with using paper instead of plastic is that it is heavy. Paper is so much heavier than plastic that the fuel costs of harvesting, production, and transportation are much, much higher. The net result can be seen by comparing the cost of a paper grocery bag to a plastic grocery bag-a paper bag costs 400% more than a plastic bag. It isn't just a question of money-the greater weight of paper, in the millions of tons in which it is used, contributes to our current energy shortage, which produces its own harmful fall out. This greater energy use contributes to global warming while at the same time reducing what we need to fight it-forests of trees.
If plastic were to be replaced by other materials, trash weight would increase by 150%, packaging would weigh 300% more and energy consumed by the industry would increase by 100%. Compared to paper grocery bags, plastic grocery bags consume 40 percent less energy, generate 80 percent less solid waste, produce 70 percent fewer atmospheric emissions, and release up to 94 percent fewer waterborne wastes.
SHOULDN'T WE RECYCLE PLASTIC? ?
Yes we should, and oxo-biodegradable plastic can be recycled along with conventional plastics in the same process. Those that fail to be recycled, however, will bio-degrade and become soil. Hydro-bio degradable plastic, the plastic made from food, cannot be recycled, and in fact must be removed from the recycling stream or they will interfere with the recycling process.
WHY USE BIODEGRADABLE PLASTIC?
At BioGreen Products, we are dedicated to seeing that more and more of the plastic disposable items we use every day rejoin the cycle of life. If we do this, disposable plastic items can help nourish our planet, and help reduce global warming, energy use, and world hunger. BioGreen Products Co. sells only oxo-biodegradable disposable plastic products.
The earth is our home-let's take good care of it!
Read the Oxo-Biodegradable Fact File
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(Photos courtesy of Wikipedia and the United Nations.) (Logo, text, and html copyright Tim Dunn, 2008)
| Millions of years ago, vast numbers of tiny algae and plankton lived in the ocean. | |
| Countless generations of them lived, died, and settled to the bottom of the sea. Aeons passed, layers of stone formed over them, continents drifted, and the bodies of these organisms became oil deposits in the ground. Today, human beings extract that oil from the ground, and use it as fuel and as the basis for plastic. | |
| These organisms were once part of the cycle of life. | |
| When locked into plastic, they have been, up until now, removed from that cycle of life, decay, and new life. Now we can complete that cycle, and return the millions of tons of plastic that we create, use, and discard to the cycle of life. Thanks to an additive that slowly breaks down the disposable plastic items that we use, plastic can be biodegraded and become part of the soil that nourishes the plants that keep our planet's atmosphere in balance. The addition of this additive turns ordinary plastic into oxy-biodegradable plastic. BioGreen Products sells disposable items made of oxy-biodegradable plastic. | |
| Over 500 billion plastic bags are created and discarded every year. That is millions of tons worth of plastic, clogging our landfills, choking our oceans, useless to our planet's ecology. Oxo-biodegradable plastics are a solution to that problem. There are two alternatives to oxo-biodegradable plastics: Hydro-biodegradable plastics, and paper. | |
|
Some say we should make food into plastic since it is a renewable resource that can be biodegraded. This kind of plastic is called hydro-biodegradable plastic. It is made out of wheat, corn, or potatoes. Informally, it is known as 'spud-ware.' At BioGreen Products, we feel that plastic shouldn't be made of food for two reasons. The first is that plastic is made from a part of oil that used to be discarded as a waste product. Scientists discovered that this waste product could be made into a useful material, plastic. Why should we not use this previously ignored waste product? The second is that we need that food to feed the poor and starving millions in the third world. If we turn that food into plastic and into fuel for our vehicles, it becomes more expensive-too expensive for the poor peoples in the third world. (It may seem far fetched to claim that turning grain into plastic bags and wrapping is a threat to the survival of the world's poorest people, but a little math demonstrates the threat very clearly. 13.5 million tons of plastic bags and wrappers are disposed of in the US alone every year. That weight in food is enough food to feed 61,000,000 people for a year. The proof: Calories per pound of grain=1500. Calories per ton of grain=3,000,000. Man days per ton of grain at 1800 calories per person=16,666. Man years per ton of grain=4.56. 13,500,000 tons x 4.56=61,660,000 man years of calories. Now multiply the amount of plastic bags and wrappers thrown away every year in the word-with the US throwing away 1/4 of the plastic bags and wrappers-61,000,000 x 4 = 246,240,000 man years of food would be turned into garbage bags and wrappings if those who advocate turning food into plastic bags are given their way. )
| |
|
How bad is the food situation right now? Wheat prices are up 120%. Rice prices have risen 75%. 862 million people across the world are hungry, up from 852 million a year ago. Every day, almost 16,000 children die from hunger-related causes--one child every five seconds. Food is simply too precious to be made into garbage bags and plastic spoons. | |
| Maybe not. In some cases, we can substitute permanent items for disposable ones. However, this is not always possible. As wasteful as it may seem to use disposable plastic utensils, they are a part of modern sanitation. Departments of health across the world enforce the use of either highly controlled dishwashing equipment with temperature control adequate to kill bacteria, or the use of disposable cups, plates, and cutlery. | |
| Before modern sanitation, plagues swept the earth that killed millions. The humble plastic cup, knife, fork, and spoon are a part of our fight against food and water borne diseases-cholera, typhus, typhoid, salmonella, e-coli, and many more fatal diseases. When used to wrap up trash which contains food products or harmful chemicals, plastic bags also help prevent the contamination of our living spaces, our water supplies, and our food. | |
| Trees turn carbon dioxide, which is a major cause of global warming, into oxygen, which we need to breathe. They also turn carbon into cellulose, the stuff of which they are made, removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. | |
| Global warming threatens us in many, many ways. Global warming is a threat to food production, because the poorest countries are in the tropics, and many of the crops there simply cannot tolerate higher temperatures than are currently found there. If global warming continues, the polar bear will surely become extinct. | |
| Rising sea levels caused by global threaten low coastal areas with flooding, such as we have recently seen in Myanmar and Bangladesh. Hurricanes become more powerful, because it is high sea temperatures that cause hurricanes. | |
| And of course, the two effects combine to increase the damage that we see in costal areas when the higher sea level is combined fiercer winds and more rain-leading to situations such as the devastation of New Orleans. | |
|
Another problem with using paper instead of plastic is that it is heavy. Paper is so much heavier than plastic that the fuel costs of harvesting, production, and transportation are much, much higher. The net result can be seen by comparing the cost of a paper grocery bag to a plastic grocery bag-a paper bag costs 400% more than a plastic bag. It isn't just a question of money-the greater weight of paper, in the millions of tons in which it is used, contributes to our current energy shortage, which produces its own harmful fall out. This greater energy use contributes to global warming while at the same time reducing what we need to fight it-forests of trees. If plastic were to be replaced by other materials, trash weight would increase by 150%, packaging would weigh 300% more and energy consumed by the industry would increase by 100%. Compared to paper grocery bags, plastic grocery bags consume 40 percent less energy, generate 80 percent less solid waste, produce 70 percent fewer atmospheric emissions, and release up to 94 percent fewer waterborne wastes. | |
| Yes we should, and oxo-biodegradable plastic can be recycled along with conventional plastics in the same process. Those that fail to be recycled, however, will bio-degrade and become soil. Hydro-bio degradable plastic, the plastic made from food, cannot be recycled, and in fact must be removed from the recycling stream or they will interfere with the recycling process. | |
| At BioGreen Products, we are dedicated to seeing that more and more of the plastic disposable items we use every day rejoin the cycle of life. If we do this, disposable plastic items can help nourish our planet, and help reduce global warming, energy use, and world hunger. BioGreen Products Co. sells only oxo-biodegradable disposable plastic products. | |
| The earth is our home-let's take good care of it! | |