Is This The Sipping Point?
This guest blog is by Nina Goodrich, Director of The Sustainable Packaging Coalition (SPC) & Executive Director of GreenBlue.
Single use plastics have become the focal point for our frustration with plastic waste. Doug Woodring from the Ocean Recovery Alliance wrote in a recent article, “Switching to alternatives might not save the world but the use of single-use plastics sends a distinct message to customers that the brand and its management is not on top of an issue of growing global importance.” Straws are emblematic of our single-use addiction because they are rarely necessary and tossed in a matter of minutes. Recent moves by Starbucks, McDonald’s and others to eliminate straws provides momentum to address the single use challenge. I believe we should embrace this momentum and leverage it to tackle the larger problem of developing system-based solutions for design and recovery of all packaging material types. It’s important that we not get distracted by single substrate solutions. All…
Bioplastics and Biodegradability
This guest blog is courtesy of Debra Darby, Darby Marketing.
Recently several colleagues interested in organics recycling have asked me about the use of the terminology “biodegradable” and “compostable”, and what these terms mean. Several types of products have come out that further complicate people’s understanding including bags and food service ware items made from bioplastics and other compostable materials. I will provide some definitions and a glossary of terms for you to gain a general understanding.
What are Bioplastics?
Bioplastics are a large family of materials that can be used to make a wide variety of consumer products. A bioplastic is a plastic that can be biodegradable, has biobased content, or both. Bioplastics is a term which encompasses two categories:
- Bioplastic made from renewable resources. Here the origin of the raw materials used to make bioplastics, typically from biomass including industrial sugars and starch, is considered biobased.
- Bioplastic that is biodegradable and compostable…
Waste-Handling Injuries: What We Can Learn from OSHA Injury Reports
This guest blog is courtesy of the Solus Group.
There’s good news and bad news for safety advocates in the waste-handling industry.
First, the good news. Fatalities for refuse and recycling collectors declined to a rate of 34.1 per 100,000 full-time equivalent workers in 2016. This halted a troubling rise that began in 2012 and peaked at a rate of 38.8 injuries per 100,000 workers in 2015.
Nonfatal injury and illness rates for solid waste collectors also dipped slightly around that time, from 5.2 injuries per 100 workers in 2016 to 5.1 in 2017. Analysts credit this trend as the result of aggressive safety programs surrounding waste-collectors, driven by the job’s standing as the fifth-most dangerous occupation in the U.S.
Now the bad news. While we’ve seen incremental safety improvements in…