ENVIRONMENT-SOUTH AFRICA: Biodegradable Label Less Eco-Friendly Than It Promises

ENVIRONMENT-SOUTH AFRICA: Biodegradable Label Less Eco-Friendly Than It Promises

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In an attempt to reduce pollution and the amount of waste going into limited landfill space, the country has started to buy into a newly developed form of plastic that rapidly degrades, known as oxo-biodegradable plastic. However, these plastics have come under fire by environmentalists because, contrary to how they are marketed, they are not truly biodegradable.

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This oxo-biodegradable plastice breaks down into tiny particles which are said to pollute the environment. So no matter how much good a person does for the planet there will always be unregulated/non-caring areas which will continue to pollute, why bother? Maybe negative but pretty true.
That said, surely anything which is biodegradable is absorbed by the environment in someway anyway?

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DAMN: ( I bought 2 boxes of this stuff last night: ( thinking it was a good biodegradable alternative for trash. Thier eco bags, based on oxo, biodegrdable plastic..The box advertises within 1 year, even buried in tthe trash, it WILL have completley decomposted. I buoght them, becuase my CVS sells them. I had for alittle, been using corn based trash bags..I did some research, and found this out.. corn based trash bags, give off alot of metahne emissions during decompostion, as well as carbon dioxide. The oxo bags, are also mnade of pastic, but give off way less gases. I found a website, of a guy who put a corn based bag in a bucket of compost. After a year he came back, and took a pc. The bag was shriveld, like it had attempted to compost, but most of the writting on the corn ba was still thier! The bag did redice its size and shrivel up..but after 1 year, it did not biodegrade 100%. This was a 13 gallon bag, for the record.
It kinda makes me think sometimes, are biodegradable bags really worth it, compared to plastic? Yeah, the pastic bags will take hundreds of years to decompose, maybe even thousands, but at least, thier holding any pharmacuticals, drugs, chemcials IN the bag..obviously with a bio degrdable bag, those chemcials and pharmacuticals eventually can fidn thier way into water, or contaminate the earth around it.
Just an observational thought i had.

THis makes me think, about our garbage removal industry, if ii can call it that... when i was a kid, in the early 1980, i used to go with my father to the dump. It was a small, muddy area you could just dump everything trees n shrubs, household garbage, sofas, you name it, and bulldozers would just push it into a pile, then put it in a truck, and would go across the street, to the city incinerator. IT was eventually shut down, becuae it was a huge health hazardm rats the size of kittens ran around(i once saw a city dump worker with a shotgun, asked my father whats he doin witht he shotgun, his answer...for tthe rats!) and it was very common, for black soot 3 ro 4 days after incineration to rain down on street, cars people and our local beach.
Starting around 1990, that changed. A warehouse was built nearby, and thas where you left yuor trash, but it had to be seperated,wehn unloading. From thier, they seperated recycables, and anyting else was truckedf out to a few citys north of me(brideport CT) to burn to make electricity. As of last year, my city (stamford CT) was teh first city to try a new trash technology. They basically layed off ro replaced garbage men, and we now have to use big 80 gallon containers, we cannot use garbage cans anymore.A special truck with a mechanical arm, picks up household refuge this way. It goes to a moving belt(that has fialed 2 times already), laoded on truck and goes to Ohio for burial. The place that was the dump,. is now totaly cleaned up..thiers a walkway with numerous dumpsters, and each dumpster is lable household trash, cardboard, newspaper, leaves/tress, metals ect ect. They have just started last year accepting fluorescent bulbs, which they keep in old rusty oil drums.
As for our sewer water, solid wastes have undergone new technology.The city here, uses human solid waste, for its metahne, to make electricity. I joke you not! A freind of mine years ago, had an uncle who worked for the city. Decades ago, they used to seperate human solid waste from the water, then truk oad it for incineration.
I really think, we shuold go back to incinerating to ake electricity. They say it gives of alot of pollution. Ive driven by the incinerator quite a fw times on the highway. It barelty even smells, and ive never seen it giving off smog like smoke, never. Kinda makes me think, what the city and the powers to be are up to, seems like a system designed to milk taxpayes dry. plus! incineration will always be the only real way to guarantee cleanliness and total elimination, as well as keeping things a non health hazzard.

reply to post by ziggy1706

Waste disposal in England ranges from farsicle to fantastic, where the end product ends up is subject to many conspiracy theories. Where I live we use wheelie bins, 120 litres - one for household, recycling and garden, they get collected every week but left if the lid is up by more than 4inches.
I was also told that if they see something non-recyclable in your recycle bin they don't take it either. I don't blame the collectors, they are just doing what they are paid to do.
Where I used to live they'd come all the way up a long drive and lug the bags to the van and they'd leave a load of free bags.