Bioplastics Will Not End The Plastic Pollution Nightmare

 Bioplastics have a role to play in lessening plastic pollution, but they will not end the plastic pollution nightmare. They must not be used as yet another excuse to continue doing nothing about the millions of kilos of plastic trash pouring into rivers and oceans daily. Many companies take no responsibility about where their plastic materials end up. Companies that use bioplastics for some or all of their packaging needs will not lessen the plastic pollution nightmare as long as plastic trash keeps pouring into rivers and oceans by millions of kilos daily. 

Bioplastics are nowhere near being able to replace plastic. Until the day comes when they can replace plastics, which may be never, the daily flood of plastic trash into rivers, oceans, mangroves, forests, and elsewhere, continues unabated and unaddressed. 

In order for bioplastics made from canola oil and other land based plant materials to replace plastics made from oil, millions of acres of land will be needed. This presents huge challenges on an earth where a sizable portion of the growing human population already does not have enough food. Finding enough acres to produce the plants needed for bioplastics to make a real dent against plastic is no easy task. The potential ecological harm from growing plants for bioplastics must be taken into consideration if bioplastics move beyond a small scale. This includes the need for pesticides, fertilizers, herbicides, fossil fuels for farm equipment, and so on. How some bioplastics impact marine life, how they degrade in cold marine environments and in other environments, how some bioplastics release methane gas when they degrade, the degree to which they can adequately replace plastic, and much more must be addressed.   

There is no easy way out of the plastic pollution nightmare. Bioplastics must not join the long list of diversions and interventions that do nothing to stop millions of kilos of plastic trash from entering rivers and oceans daily. As long as billions of people in many developing countries use millions of kilos of plastic daily, with no way to properly dispose of their plastic waste, the plastic trash nightmare will only get worse. 

Proper waste management must become universal. People almost everywhere are dependent upon plastic, with the majority living in places where there is little or no collection of plastic waste, and no proper way to dispose of plastic waste. As a result, plastic trash gets dumped into rivers, oceans, into mangroves, forests and more. Many people openly burn plastic trash, exposing themselves and the environment to toxic smoke and to harmful carcinogens.

Universal proper waste management is not even on the radar. As long as it is not, and as long as it is nowhere close to being achieved, everything else is of little consequence. Millions of kilos of plastic waste will continue pouring into rivers and oceans daily. 

There needs to be the mass employment of people, especially in developing countries, to remove plastic waste already contaminating coastlines, mangroves, forests, cities and more. There needs to be the widespread employment of people and widespread use of machinery and technology to ensure plastic trash is properly collected and disposed. Everything else is secondary at most, including recycling itself. Keeping plastic waste out of the environment must be the priority. 

All the plastic straw bans, beach cleanups, selling of jewelry and other items from plastic trash, bioplastics, ocean and river cleanup devices, and so forth, are of little consequence as long as plastic pollution continues to pour into rivers and oceans by millions of kilos daily. Bioplastics are years or even decades away from being more than a niche player, and may never be more than a niche player that minimally disrupts the massive plastics industry. Ocean and rivers and most life on earth cannot wait.

Developed countries are not immune from what occurs in developing countries. Removing plastic waste already in the environment by employing people, and ensuring plastic trash and other harmful trash are properly collected and disposed of everywhere, must be the priority.