Page 39 - Plastics News September 2024
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FEATURE NEWS
The Powerful Environmental Solution Offered by
Plastics
have been agitprop documentaries like Al Gore’s
An Inconvenient Truth and a rise in ethical com-
panies like Lush. Yet some political campaign-
ers claim that work to help the environment has
moved too slowly.
Environmental expert and writer Naomi Klein has
postulates in her book, The Shock Doctrine, that
the needs of capitalism will always usurp those
of the environment. Her solution – shut down
the free market and create a system based on
the conservation of energy.
Not all campaigners are quite so outspoken, but
there’s little denying that Klein has a point.
lastic is a well-established material that
needs no introduction. It is a substance Battle Lines
Pwhich is melted, then sequentially mould-
ed into a new form to create a perfect and prac- Smog lines the streets of major cities. In Califor-
tical object that can help around the house or nia, the Hollywood sign is barely visible thanks
in the workplace. Yet, the way plastic is being to the pollution that hangs in the air. In Japan,
manufactured is changing. large numbers of the population wear gasmasks
to protect their lungs from the noxious gases all
Now, a large amount of this material is being re- around them. In the UK, fracking is being pushed
cycled and reconstituted – and it’s creating a by the government despite protestations from
cleaner and less polluted industry. numerous organisations.
Every industry is having to consider its carbon The battle lines for the environment have been
footprint, thanks to both governmental and pub- drawn, with the world’s governments and com-
lic pressure. panies on one side and the general population
on the other.
The Global Landscape
Where Plastics Figure
Major retail outlets Tesco and B&Q have reduced
their carbon footprint by a sizeable sum, while Within the realm of the plastics industry, recy-
large companies like DuPont have seen balloon- cling is making some headway in addressing the
ing profits thanks to cutbacks in their carbon problems of the environment.
output.
According to the CIWM Journal, “significant im-
Placing the issue at the fore in the past decade provements have been made by local authori-
PLASTICS NEWSASTICS NEWS
September 2024 PL 39 41
September 2024
