Letter to the Editor: Plastic Culture

During Earth Week Door County 2018, Movies That Matter showed Plastic Paradise: The Great Pacific Garbage Patch documenting how plastic pollution is cruelly killing wildlife, upsetting the balance of nature and finding its way into our food chain. It is a grim, sad and disturbing revelation which gnaws at one with the need to do whatever possible to keep this trash out of the environment.

There are alternatives to petroleum-based plastic cups, containers, wraps, etc. One option, bagasse, is made from sugar cane, sorghum, sugar beets and other plant fibers left after processing. Bagasse, and other earth-friendly products are available online. Walmart and Amazon carry some items also. Bagasse products can be composted in a commercial facility, but would also break down harmlessly within 90 days. Many petroleum based plastics will be around for hundreds of year at least. The problem is that compostables do cost more.

Al Johnson’s Swedish Restaurant is already using recyclable containers for their take-outs and MacReady Bread Company is using compostables. Thank you Al Johnson’s, thank you MacReady. It is likely that there are other businesses doing the same thing. The Kress Pavilion in Egg Harbor, a Green Tier community, has banned the use of Styrofoam ‒ there are some great starts here already.

But, maybe we could all make the effort to start a micro anti-plastic revolution by encouraging our favorite places to begin using as much biodegradable/compostable plastic ware as they possibly can. We can request that more local stores make those products available to us.

It makes sense that some of the responsibility for the trash nightmare has to be passed back to manufacturers at some point, but for now we can all do a little to help things along. Many individuals are probably doing simple things to cut back on plastics like switching back to bar soap, using fabric shopping bags, wrapping with wax paper and buying milk in wax containers, etc. Remember glass bottles and the deposits that were refunded when they were returned? Why did that go away?

How did we reach the point where we have so few choices about the products we buy? We have a packaging monoculture in which so much is made from or wrapped up in plastic. Recycle, great; reuse, great; repurpose, fantastic; but not making so much of the stuff to begin with seems smarter in the long run.

Increased costs for compostables would eventually be offset by containing the amount we ultimately spend to handle waste. Those costs will likely increase as China, who has been importing much of our recyclable plastic recently announced they no longer will accept it. So then what? For this reason compostables would be the best choice by far.

We can all urge elected officials, business, civic and religious leaders to embrace this shift, adopt green purchase policies and take the lead creating an era in which use of biodegradables and compostables is business as usual. The beauty is that supporting the use of these materials is one earth loving thing we can all do.

Pat Glen

Ellison Bay, Wis.