TALKING TRASH…The Simple Truth About Plastics

In recent years we have seen the demonization of plastic bags provided to their customers by grocery stores and other retailers. Some countries have levied a tax on the use of these bags while others have banned their use outright. The movement against these bags has been so strident it’s as if the elimination of plastic bags would solve all of the earth’s pollution problems. This line of thinking is naive to the extreme.

Walk down any aisle of any grocery store anywhere in the world and you will be surrounded by plastic products that improve the quality of our life – shampoo and laundry detergent bottles, bread bags, cookie and candy packaging, milk jugs, mustard, vinegar, spices and other condiment containers, produce bags, meat, fish and cheese packaging, paper towel and bathroom tissue packaging, and on and on and on. What about all these plastic products? Don’t they also represent potential plastic pollution?

Or have we conveniently ignored all these other plastic products that we find so useful every day?

The reality is that plastic products are deeply embedded in our everyday lives and there is no viable substitute on the horizon. As a result plastic products will continue to be an integral part of our lives for the foreseeable future. But plastic bags represent just a very small part of a much larger concern.

When plastic products have served their useful purpose, like most items that are considered to be “garbage” they end up in landfill sites mixed with other garbage. Much of this garbage is contained in traditional plastic garbage bags which may take hundreds of years to break down, entrapping their contents and preventing them from breaking down as well, and clogging our limited landfill space as a result. In reality these garbage bags represent a much bigger problem than plastic carrier bags. Fortunately there is a solution.

EPI Environmental Technologies Inc. (EPI) manufactures plastic additives that help solve the problem of plastic waste. EPI pioneered the commercial application of a scientific process called oxo-biodegradation that quickly and inexpensively breaks down plastics, including plastic carrier bags and garbage bags. Most recently garbage bags made with EPI’s Totally Degradable Plastic Additives (TDPA™) were selected by the Vancouver Olympic Committee to be used at the Vancouver 2010 Olympics specifically because they are environmentally responsible.

So in reality there is no need to tax, ban or demonize carrier bags, garbage bags or any other plastic bag. EPI’s Totally Degradable Plastic Additives provide the solution to plastic waste. EPI’s TDPA™ technology is recognized worldwide as the most effective way to make commodity plastic waste degradable and biodegradable. As an indication of the acceptance of EPI’s TDPA technology, Joseph Gho, EPI’s Chairman and CEO, was recently invited by Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson to China as part of the city’s Green Trade Mission.

EPI customers in over sixty countries worldwide are served by corporate offices in United States, Canada and the United Kingdom as well as an international network of agents, licensees and distributors.

Do you have comments on the above article?  Tell us what you think. We welcome your feedback!