“You can be for the environment, or against plastics, but not both”

Getting to know Megan Fontes, the new Executive Director of the Northeast Recycling Council this week. Lynn Rubenstein is retiring - Lynn and I worked together in several capacities over the decades (she came with me on my first visit to China in 2002).

Via LinkedIn, Megan just shared this article to ask my thoughts.   Plastic – Fact over Fiction

Chris DeArmitt - PhD, FRSC, FIMMM

Written by Chris DeArmitt.  He's a paid "expert witness" who's got industry connections, but I guess I do too, and have seen my articles dismissed based on my "recycling business".  The article makes several of the same points made in the Oregon study from a couple of years ago.

Remember: “you can be for the environment, or against plastics, but not both”.

Well, I'm not as sure about microplastics as Chris DeArmitt (his argument that the number of alarmed scientific reports is 24% but number of press reports 90%+ does point to journalistic alarmism, but if he's an expert on plastics, that's a really weak response to concerns on microplastic pollution).  But his LCA lifecycle analysis is spot on.

He also takes some cheap shots against other materials, like "ceramic takes longer to degrade than a plastic bag". It's an apples to oranges comparison. Same with carcinogens in dust industries like cement. I'm sure if a study was done on inhaling plastic particles, they'd be just as carcinogenic (abrasion is the cause with cement, not toxicity). But he's defending his team, and it is true Team Plastic is getting ganged up upon.

Well rather than blog more, I'll leave you to read the article.  The meta-blog-analysis is that the free market does in fact prioritize many environmental lifecycle analysis priorities. Lightweight polymers produced from gasoline refining biproducts save a lot more food waste, transport weight costs, and total material use, and those wins must be counted against the "blue box" plastic recycling frustrations and landfill panic.

No more "own goals". Primum non nocere, first do no harm.