EARTH TALK
From the Editors of E/The Environmental Magazine
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Why can’t we recycle yogurt containers? Some dairy products like yogurt come in packages of low recyclabilty, labeled “5,” which many towns won’t take. The ability to recycle a plastic item rests with many factors, including its material, its usability in new products, and whether or not a market is in place for the materials. Recycling “5” polypropylene is technically possible. The challenge is in separating it from other plastics. Because of the difficulty and expense of sorting, collecting, cleaning and reprocessing, in many places it is only economically viable to recycle a few types, such as polyethylene terephthalate (PETE, “1”), high-density polyethylene (HDPE, “2”), and sometimes polyvinyl chloride (PVC, “3”). Polypropylene is a “thermoplastic polymer,” with density and resins that give it a high melting point, able to tolerate hot liquid without breaking down. It is used in food packaging applications in which the product initially goes into the container hot or is later microwave heated in the container. It is also used to make bottle caps, computer disks, straws and film packaging. Its toughness, strength, ability to be a barrier to moisture, and resistance to grease, oil and chemicals also make it a very attractive material for many uses. Alternatives to polypropylene and other plastics are being developed. NatureWorks, a division of Cargill, has developed a corn-based plastic called polylactic acid (PLA). While it looks and functions like other plastics PLA is fully biodegradable, given that it is derived from plant-based materials. A handful of natural foods companies and retailers are already using corn plastic, though not yet to replace heatresistant polypropylene. Even Coca-Cola has started experimenting with replacing its traditional plastic soda bottles with a corn-based alternative. And last October, as part of its “green” overhaul, Wal-Mart announced it would replace 114 million plastic produce containers a year with PLA varieties, sparing about 800,000 barrels of oil annually. To learn more: NatureWorks, www.natureworksllc.com; Metabolix, www.metabolix.com; The Society of the Plastics Industry, www.plasticsindustry.org.
Are mothballs safe? Even though they are not as popular as they once were, mothballs are still used by many people to keep stored clothes, furniture and carpets free of hungry pests like moths. But the very ingredients that make mothballs so effective as household pesticides—namely naphthalene or paradichlorobenzene (PDB)—also make them dangerous to any person or animal who breathes the fumes or ingests them directly. Such chemicals are often listed as primary offenders when household air is tested for indoor air pollution. Exposure to naphthalene or PDB can induce nausea, vomiting, headache, coughing, burning eyes and shortness of breath. These chemicals, which are also found in some dry cleaning agents as well as household air fresheners and solid toilet-bowl deodorizers, have been found to nearly double the risk of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma—a cancer of the blood— for those who come into frequent contact with them.
Food containers like these, along with many other kinds of plastics, may soon be made mostly from corn and other plant-based materials. So what to do? For starters, removing all mothballs and their flakes is a good first step. Experts suggest donning gloves and perhaps a mask before manually removing mothballs. Affected clothing can be machine-washed and dried several times, preferably on high heat settings. If the smell of mothballs continues to linger, iron the clothes with high heat settings, which tend to break down the active chemicals. Sunlight also breaks down naphthalene and PDB, so leaving any affected items outside on hot sunny days may also help. Carpets and upholstery co-mingled with mothballs should be vacuumed thoroughly, and the vacuum cleaner bags emptied immediately outdoors. If the mothball smell lingers, a professional cleaning might do the trick, although such services can introduce other harmful chemicals, such as the carcinogen perchloroethylene, into the household as well. After any kind of mothball removal effort, the cleaned house or closet should be aired out, ideally with one or more fans blowing as much fresh outdoor air through as possible. As to alternatives for keeping moths and other critters away from clothes and other valuable fabrics, Care2.com’s green home guru and author Annie Berthold-Bond suggests using homemade sachet pillows filled with a dried herb mixture combining two parts each of rosemary and mint, one part each of thyme and ginseng, and eight parts whole cloves. The herbs can be mixed and combined in the center of a bandana or handkerchief that is then tied with a ribbon and placed among the stored items.
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To learn more: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Napthalene page, www.epa.gov/ttn/atw/hlthef/naphthal.html; PlanetNatural MothAway page, www.planetnatural.com/site/moth-away.html.
Got an Environmental Question? Send it to: EarthTalk, c/o E/The Environmental Magazine, P.O. Box 5098, Westport, CT 06881; submit it at: www.emagazine.com/earthtalk/thisweek, or e-mail: earthtalk@emagazine.com. Read past columns at: www.emagazine.com/earthtalk/archives.php.
24 AUGUST 2007 Carolina Country
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