Dealing with our plastics crisis

Regarding the article on the large ramp-up of the bioplastics industry (“Billions pour into bioplastics as markets begin ramping up,” Aug. 12), people should know that bioplastics can biodegrade only under the right conditions. Those conditions are not met in backyard compost piles or in typical garbage dumps, but only in industrial composting systems. There are additional problems with bioplastics. They contain potentially damaging chemicals that will enter the environment when the plastics break down. They also drive up the costs to operate those industrial composting facilities. In a landfill, they emit methane — a greenhouse gas significantly worse than carbon dioxide. They also will pose problems for wildlife when they enter our waterways if not disposed of properly.

Rather than creating a new type of plastic, a better solution to our ever-growing plastics crisis is to focus industry dollars on reducing the amount of packaging, increasing reusables by switching to refillable systems (glass and aluminum) and using containers made with materials that have successful and anti-polluting recycling systems (glass, aluminum and cardboard).

These solutions can be encouraged by passing extended producer responsibility laws such as those passed in Maine and Oregon. These laws create a shared responsibility for plastic end-of-life management on producers of plastic. They encourage product design changes to minimize packaging’s negative impacts on the environment and human health. The cost of disposal is incorporated into the total cost of the product so that markets include the environmental impacts of a product.

— Laura Topel, Wilmette