Plastics face renewed attacks from activists

To celebrate Plastics News' 20th anniversary, we continue our weekly countdown of the Top 20 issues of lasting impact, as reported in our pages. The series will end with the No. 1 issue in our 20th Anniversary special edition March 16.

This week: No. 2: Bans and attacks: plastics under pressure

It's hard to imagine the plastics industry more under attack than it is today.

There are assaults on plastics bags and takeout polystyrene packaging. The safety of chemicals such as phthalates and bisphenol A that are used to make plastic products for children is increasingly being questioned.

In addition, every type of plastic packaging and single-use product today needs to answer to critics who decry items that end up in landfills or as litter. These critics are quick to question a material's value in the new era of sustainability, where everyone is scrutinizing a product's carbon footprint.

The threats aren't just on the legislative or regulatory fronts. Relentless and persistent Web-based, new media campaigns have caused a number of retailers to stop carrying lunch boxes, children's utensils, coolers, baby bibs, infant changing tables and shower curtains made from PVC, and triggered stores to pull from their shelves polycarbonate baby bottles that contain BPA.

But the reality is that attacks on plastics were just as persistent 20 years ago, with efforts then under way to ban chlorine, a ban in New York's Suffolk County on PS and PVC takeout food containers, and the first concerted effort by environmentalists to ban plastic bags and PS takeout containers.

What's different is that yesterday's visible rallies have taken a back seat to well-organized new media campaigns that are designed to create public pressure, not just on governments to take action, but on retailers to remove products from their stores — in other words, achieving the effect of a legislative ban without getting one enacted.

To see where plastics have come under attack, one just has to look at the special industry groups that have been formed, many in the past 20 years, to counter the series of neverending attacks on the different industry segments.

The Progressive Bag Affiliates of the American Chemistry Council and its predecessor organizations were formed to meet the threats posed by proposed plastic bag bans or taxes. The council's Plastics Foodservice Packaging Group, which until two years ago was the Polystyrene Packaging Council, had its roots in the attacks on polystyrene takeout packaging.

The Chemical Manufacturers Association Phthalates Ester Panel has its hand full today with critics who have attacked the plasticizer as a health risk when it's a component of feeding products for children.

Likewise, the ACC's Polycarbonate/PBA Global Group must often fend off attacks on bisphenol A based on its possible health risks to small children.

Going back in time, the ACC's Chlorine Chemistry Division was formed in 1993 as the Chlorine Chemistry Council because of similar attacks and threats to phase out the building block of PVC. A large part of the mission of the ACC's Vinyl Institute is promote and defend vinyl aggressively from the continuing attacks by its critics.

To its credit, the plastics industry has successfully fended off many chemistry-specific bans, phthalates notwithstanding.

What's more, possibly because it has so often been under the gun, the industry has learned how to successfully ward off product bans, with the exception of numerous bans on PS take-out packaging in California.

Only Westport, Conn., and three communities in California — San Francisco, Malibu and Fairfield — actually have enacted plastic bag bans.

But the industry has been less successful in devising a successful strategy to combat what is likely to be the battleground of the 21st century — the new media campaigns that pressure retailers and large institutions, including health-care facilities and governments, to de-select products, so as to avoid any association with potential negativity.

I have been active in plastics industry when the first report of DOP causing cancer in 1984 came out. Over the years, I have always argued against ban on PVC and DOP simply based on cancer risk. PVC is a common man's plastic and cannot/will not be completely eliminated ever. Most countries and organzations that promote PVC ban either do not have a PVC producer and/or have too much money/time on their hands. Go tell someone in a poor country trying to drink contaminated water not to use PVC containers.... because DOP will impact their future endocrine systems... ?? In the case of polyolefins the stroy is different. Polyolefins are simpler molecules C and H as close to nature as you can get. While it is true that movement towards polyolefins will pickup in future ... but bio plastics will be ideal way to go for sustainability and renewability. There are several products in the market today that claim sustainability just because they originate based on natural materials but end up as non renewable plastic - this is one step in the movement to renewability - but not the end point. The case of plastic bags... is a serious issue and I am with the general public and environmentalists on this..., It is not the energy impact, but the impact of time... Imagine you walk into a 7-11 get a coke. the cashier gives you in a plastic bag... you walk out and throw the bag into garbage... Time of use... 15 seconds Time the bag stayed at the store.... few weeks Time to make the bag.... one month Time to make the pellets .... few weeks Time to make the naphtha ... months Time to refine the oil and transport... months Time to explore for the oil... years Time the oil stayed under ground... few million years. Essentially you took something that stayed underground for millions of years.. you brought it up to the earth and put it on the ground for your 15 seconds of benefit... ?? Which is unfair. The case only applies to plastic bags..., not all the plastic materials... They end up polluting the land... Even though recycling is a solution.. few countries in the world are equipped for that.. even the richest countries can't to do that effectively.. why blame others... Banning plastic bags at grocery and store level would get my vote... because.. plastic bags.. get used in 15 seconds... but stay around for another 100-200 years... Example.. Travel by train in India into National Forests... The thick forests with green canopy trees.. now have fantastic blooms.. green, blue.. red.. yellow.. orange... Look carefully... they are not blooming... those are plastic bags stuck on the trees thrown from passing trains... Most trains in India are not air conditioned and have open windows. Understand... all the solutions of encouraging recycling (essentially collection -distribution - disposal/ reuse... are not economical even in the U.S how do you expect it to happen in India and other countries,.... So a new approach - ban plastic bags.. on intended use purpose.. Will it be a slippery slope.... Yes.... but for the ultimate good of the society... Most of the plastics professionals whose lively hood depends on plastics.. will disagree.. because they wear plastic masks... take few minutes and think without the plastics masks for a while.. may be after 5PM.. when you not at work.. talking to your friends who have nothing to do with plastics,.. your grand parents.. get their perspective.... this will only help you do a better job at plastics industry.. not destroy it.

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