When my sister set off to volunteer in a poor community in Kenya two years ago, she asked me to donate the last thing I ever expected: plastic T-shirt bags and sandwich bags.  She explained that these products were extremely scarce in many parts of East Africa, and that people needed them to preserve food, keep it clean and protect it from pests.  According to the World Food Programme, Kenya is a “low-income food-deficit country” where 31% of the population is undernourished and violent ethnic clashes combined with high food and fuel prices have left 5.6 million people “food insecure.” 

It dawned on me what a luxury it is for most of us in the United States to enjoy an abundant food supply – not to mention plastic packaging and a complex regulatory framework to ensure its safe use.  When food gets to stores and homes here, plastic plays a key role in keeping it safe from light, oxygen, heat, humidity and microorganisms: the main culprits of spoilage.

From polyvinylidene chloride (commonly known as Saran™ that wraps meats, fruits and vegetables) to high density polyethylene (molded into milk and juice containers) to  polypropylene (most butter/margarine and yogurt containers), plastic food packaging is specially designed to extend the shelf-life of food, change colors if the food is adulterated or spoiled, preserve the quality and nutrient content of food and prevent serious food-borne illnesses like botulism. 

By preventing food spoilage, plastic packaging not only protects our health but has some eye-opening sustainability benefits as well. According to “Packaging in Perspective,” a 2008 report prepared by the Advisory Committee on Packaging (UK), “Food waste has at least ten times the environmental impact of packaging waste and that’s before taking account of the impact of methane from decayed food.” In other words, when we prevent food spoilage, we grow and ship less food, consume fewer resources and generate fewer emissions.
 
If not for plastic packaging, more food would spoil and greenhouse gas emissions would increase. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Americans waste more than 25 percent of the food we prepare, about 96 billion pounds of food waste each year. Sixty billion pounds of this food waste was put in landfills in 2006. Organic waste in landfills emits the greenhouse gas methane.

If not for plastic packaging’s boost to food shelf-life, we’d all be heading to the grocery more often. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, if every household in the U.S. decreased the number of trips  to the grocery each month by one, in a year the amount of energy saved would equal 237 million gallons of gasoline.

Industry invests millions of dollars annually in R&D to come up with new combinations of materials that safely package our food, and scientists and government officials devote careers to assessing the safety of food packaging.  For example, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) Food Contact Notification Program involves a thorough safety evaluation of all new packaging materials. It also enables U.S. manufacturers to develop new products that better protect food and improve its shelf life.

As we engage in discussions about food packaging and ask questions about its safety for humans and the environment, we must not forget that it is actually designed with the goal of protecting our food supply. Without it we leave ourselves vulnerable to food-borne illness, a reduced food supply and a less sustainable world.

Plug in your zip code at Earth 911 for information on where to recycle plastic packaging in your neck of the woods.

One of the recent prompts on “Too Valuable to Waste,” the American Chemistry Council (ACC) blog summit on recycling, posed the question: “If you had the ability to work with and/or counsel the Obama administration on a national recycling agenda, what are the top three things that you believe would be critical components of the program?”  Several of the 11 blog contributors, as well as many people leaving comments, gave their advice to the Obama administration, including establishing energy credits, instituting sound tax policies, nurturing the recycling industry and analyzing proposed legislation. Across all of the posts a couple of common ideas emerged.

First – make recycling easier. Make single-stream (no sorting required) curbside recycling programs available to all communities, extending beyond major city lines, to make recycling more accessible for everyone.

Second – lead by example. Have you heard the phrase “Do as I say, not as I do?” If the leaders of the nation are not taking the time to recycle, it’s too easy for citizens to assume recycling isn’t important. President Obama, the White House, and Congress should all lead by example by establishing strong recycling communities and participating in them.

In his post, SPI President Bill Carteaux wrote that he would counsel the Obama administration to greatly expand waste-to-energy recycling in the Unites States. Citing how far behind the U.S. is compared to Western Europe and Asia in this area, Carteaux states that expanding waste-to-energy recycling is a great opportunity to create green jobs and is an effective way to turn plastics that are unable to be recycled into thermal energy to help power electricity generators.

Do you have any better ideas? What would you suggest?

History of 7

In 1988, SPI developed the resin identification coding system to label different polymers used in plastic goods.  At the time, the majority of plastic packaging was made of one of six resins: polyethylene terephthalate (PETE); high density polyethylene (HDPE); polyvinyl chloride (PVC or vinyl); low density polyethylene (LDPE); polypropylene (PP); or polystyrene (PS), which were labeled with resin ID codes 1 through 6, respectively.  The number 7 was a catch-all number for resins that could be identified as “other” — either a combination of more than one of the six resins listed or a resin that is not listed at all. Watch a video on rein identification basics.

7 of Today

The number 7 still maintains the identification of “other,”  but with the development of plastics technology, several new resin types fall into the number 7 category. These include polycarbonate, composite material – known as fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) or glass-reinforced plastic (GRP) – and polylactic acid (PLA).

There are a few misconceptions about the number 7 today:

• “7 means it has BPA“’ -  Wrong.  Not all number 7 plastics are the same. In fact, the opposite is true. The number 7 code, since it encompasses all types or combinations of resins not identified in numbers 1 through 6, could be anything from acrylics to bioplastics to nylon. Many different types of items could contain plastic with the number 7 – such as parachutes, Tupperware, women’s nylons and windshields. 
• “7 means it can’t be recycled” – Nope. Most electronic waste that may be made of #7 plastic (such as keyboards, CDs, cell phones, etc.) can be accepted for e-waste recycling programs through some electronic stores or computer retailers. Number 7 plastic products can also be recycled into such useful goods as floor coverings; road, highway and parking products including road barricades and car stops and plastic lumber.

7 of Tomorrow

In an effort to gain input from the stakeholder community, SPI has taken its resin identification codes to ASTM International. Through ASTM, a recognized standards making body, work on developing a standard practice has begun that will educate and offer guidance on the resin identification codes. With the development of several new plastic resins over the past 20 years, participants in this ASTM process may ultimately determine that new, additional code numbers for resins currently housed under number 7 are appropriate. Read more about the ASTM effort to establish a new standard to facilitate more efficient recycling of a variety of post-consumer plastics.

In order to have a person truly understand something, it is often better to show them rather than merely tell them — to let them experience it not just read or hear about it.

In this pivotal scene of the 1997 movie “Good Will Hunting,” therapist Sean McGuire (played by Robin Williams) lays out the difference between knowledge and experience to Will Hunting (a rebellious math genius, played by Matt Damon, who has used his photographic memory to read a ton of highly academic books):

SEAN
You’ve never been out of Boston.

WILL
Nope.

SEAN
So if I asked you about art, you could give me the skinny on every art book ever written. Michelangelo? You know a lot about him I bet. Life’s work, criticisms, political aspirations. But you couldn’t tell me what it smells like in the Sistine Chapel. You’ve never stood there and looked up at that beautiful ceiling… You’re an orphan right?

WILL
(nods quietly)

SEAN
Do you think I would presume to know the first thing about who you are because I read “Oliver Twist?”

[If you know the film, you realize I have severely edited Sean's lines. I recommend you watch or read the full scene!]

There’s a public policy lesson here that SPI tries to employ through its plant tour program — in which we work with SPI member companies to bring legislators and other government officials on-site to see facilities in operation and discuss issues with employees.

While it is often said that the best way to differentiate the House from the Senate is to consider the House as “policy specialists” and the Senate as “policy generalists,” I would argue that neither body can truly be labeled a “specialist.” There were 7,336 bills introduced in the House during the last session of Congress. It is difficult to comprehend how one member, even with a staff, could be so well-versed in every issue to be labeled a “specialist.”

Certainly, SPI has plenty of face-to-face meetings with lawmakers and their staffs, and we leave behind policy briefs that educate about plastics’ contributions to the economy and society or our view of a key issue or bill. But would the member of Congress be better served by an issue one-pager or by actually experiencing it firsthand by visiting a plant?

So, build some good will (hunting?) with your elected officials with an SPI-coordinated plant tour. If you are interested in inviting a lawmaker to your facility, just let us know. Send us an e-mail and we’ll take care of the rest.

If these five things weren’t enough to convince you of the amazing opportunities that NPE2009 has to offer, here are five more cool things:

6. Personal Web Portals for Attendees
NPE2009 has electronic planning tools to help you right-size the show and make the most of your time in Chicago. MyShow Planner allows you to build your own custom route along with a floor plan showing just the exhibitors and educational sessions you are most interested in visiting. When you get to McCormick Place, you’ll be able to use the Map Your Show kiosks (or your laptop) to log in and update your booth-visit and event plans as they change.

7. First RFID Badges at a Plastics Show
At NPE2009, you’ll be wearing a radio frequency identification (RFID) badge that will speed admissions and automate your requests for literature or post-show followup from exhibitors.

8. The Plastics Hall of Fame
Creating a dramatic introduction to NPE2009 for visitors entering the Grand Concourse of McCormick Place, the Plastics Hall of Fame display will highlight the greatest names in plastics, internationally important innovators like John Wesley Hyatt, Leo Baekeland, Roy Plunkett, George Eastman, Dieter Freitag and Georg Menges. The newest group of inductees will be honored at a gala banquet and ceremony on Monday evening of show week. The keynote speech will be given by Mike Ditka, the National Football League personality celebrated as a player, coach and television commentator.

9. New West Building—a Show in Itself
Completed after the last NPE, McCormick West is the most feature-rich building in the McCormick Place exposition center. Its half a million square feet of exhibit space will house Technology Central and many company booths. Another quarter-million square feet is divided among 61 meeting rooms—enough to accommodate the eight or more conference programs taking place during show week, including SPE’s giant ANTEC. And there’s much more to this fabulous building, including Chicago’s largest ballroom, a huge rooftop garden that accommodates 800 people, and extensive amenities and transportation facilities.

10. The New Chicago
This hometown of America’s new president and contending city for the 2016 Summer Olympics has in recent years acquired even more architectural gems, corporate headquarters, and visitor attractions. Millennium Park, completed in 2004, is a 24.5-acre treasury of art, music, architecture and landscape design. By the time NPE2009 takes place, the largest expansion in the history of Chicago’s renowned Art Institute will have been completed, housing modern and contemporary art, photography, architecture, and design—and offering a stunning view of Chicago’s skyline. America’s third-largest city—and longtime home of NPE—offers a wealth of opportunities for shopping, dining, entertainment, sports, and culture.