This trash is comprised of food waste, paper, plastic and anything else you did not find value for in your home. Luckily this trash goes to your curb and is neatly taken away where you no longer have to see it. Perfect right? A few years ago I would have said “NO WAY! This trash is going to the landfill where it will sit for decades or centuries. How is that perfect?” Fortunately, today we are learning how to turn that landfilled trash into a huge value – for you and the environment!

Methane. One of the cleanest and most inexpensive sources of energy available today, straight from your neighborhood landfill! That’s right, you send out trash and get back electricity! OK it is a bit more complicated than that but fundamentally that is exactly what is happening at over 550 landfills across the US.

Here are the facts:

As material biodegrades in landfills it produces methane. Methane has over 22 times the greenhouse gas effect of CO2, however when landfill methane is used for energy production, there becomes a carbon positive effect. The NRDC states that the use of landfill gas for energy has the potential to offset up to 12006lbs of CO2 per MWh, as it offsets traditional energy production such as coal and gas.

The greenhouse gas reduction benefits of a typical 4 megawatt LFG project equate to:
• Planting over 60,000 acres of forest per year or removing the annual carbon dioxide emissions from over 45,000 cars.
• This would also offset the use of 1,000 railcars of coal or prevent the use of almost 500,000 barrels of oil.

Producing energy from landfill gas avoids the need to use non-renewable resources such as coal, oil, or natural gas to produce the same amount of energy. LFG electricity’s offsetting of fossil fuel derived energy can avoid gas end-user and power plant emissions of CO2 and pollutants.

Did you know that 14 percent of renewable electricity generation (not including hydroelectric dams) comes from operations that recapture energy from discarded waste.

Companies today have a unique opportunity to utilize packaging that retains the beneficial properties of traditional plastic, such as strength, shelf life, visual aspect and process-ability, while creating a zero waste program and potentially reducing your carbon footprint. ENSO plastics are designed for disposal in today’s biologically active landfills where they will biodegrade and convert to methane for clean and inexpensive energy production. In 2009 there was 30 million tons of plastic packaging discarded into US landfills, converting this plastic to ENSO would result in about 10 million tons of plastic being converted to clean energy and offsetting the dirty energy production of coal and gas. It would also potentially free up over 70 million cubic yards in our landfills.

Did you know?

When converted to methane, 34 ENSO bottles (19.2 gram) can light a 100W light bulb for 1 hour.

Using ENSO materials provide companies a unique opportunity to step into a future of zero waste, where all product packaging is converted to clean energy, and returned to the earth in a beneficial form. In a life cycle analysis this could prove to be a carbon negative option to traditional plastic packaging.

Waste is a byproduct that has no value. Plastic that is recycled or biodegrades in a landfill has a value (economically and environmentally) and is not waste.

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The AG of California is suing three companies that are trying to do the right thing for the environment. This brings up an issue that becomes the “big elephant in the room”.  There is confusion in the market place that needs major corrections and clearer definitions.  The market is in big need of education!  Let’s just take California as a perfect example.

When it comes to biodegradable plastics, there is an obvious need for a clearer understanding of what materials are made of, what the specific materials issues and values are; and a clearer understanding on how the material impacts the marketplace.  For instance, the article in Mercury News asking a recycler of plastic for his experience on how biodegradable plastic impacts his processing plant said, “Even in small percentages, like one-tenth of one percent, these are just catastrophic for us…They melt at different temperatures. They ruin our products.”  Anyone in the recycling industry would agree that this statement is absolutely correct.  The major error is one of clarification:  This statement is absolutely correct if you are referring to PLA material (plastics derived from corn and other starch-based crops) but is absolutely incorrect if you are referring to ENSO plastics, like this article did.  PLA is a completely different plastic, and is 100% incompatible with standard plastics: it melts at lower temperatures, it clogs up the processing equipment, and creates major issues with the physical properties of the new plastic product…the list goes on, but it’s kind of like water and oil in comparison: 1 drop of oil in your 5 gallon jug of water is going to be a problem for anyone to drink.

I contacted the recycler in this article to see what his level of understanding was and to no surprise; he stated that he was referring to his experience of the PLA material.  He further added, “I am not familiar with the ENSO material” and apologized for the confusion.  This same lack of specificity is rampant in all fields of “experts”; recyclers, composters, retail outlets, legislators and yes, even the Attorney General.

The compostable plastics industry is trying to separate themselves from the term “biodegradable plastics” because of this confusion.  Also, the fact that compostable plastic is not biodegradable until it physically breaks down in an industrial composting facility creates an issue for them in terms of their claims, so you will see this industry soon leaving the claim “biodegradable” for a more accurate description of “compostable”.  These industrial composting facilities are different from home composting in that the temperatures are much higher, causing PLA material to melt down into basic components that can then be consumed by microorganisms (microbes) that are found in waste environments.  There is also a plastic material that breaks down in oxygen and UV light called OXO-degradable.  This plastic is often referred to as a biodegradable plastic as well.

So to date, there are 3 categories of plastics that are considered “green”:  Biodegradable, compostable and Oxo-degradable.  The benefits and advantages differ quite a bit; and as illustrated, the way they are handled for end of life processes (composting vs. recycling) is likewise absolutely different.

If the world knew to distinguish biodegradable plastics into different categories, there would be far less confusion.  I would submit that innovation takes time to understand, but for clarity sake, the phrase “biodegradable plastics” should not be mistaken for PLA or any other material.  My hope is that this ordeal in California will stimulate education and scrutiny into what is being offered to the marketplace, and assist us all to clearly understand the differences of materials and their benefits.

***ENSO plastic is simply biodegradable because it is treated with an organic blend that attracts microbial activity (essentially mold or fungus) to consume the plastic just like they would consume any other typical food item in any environment where there this activity exists.  The rate of biodegradation varies depending on the environment it’s placed in.  But generally in a landfill environment, the ENSO material has been shown to biodegrade in 2-20 years depending on the microbial activity present.  All of the independent 3^rd party ASTM physical properties tests illustrate that ENSO behaves like regular PET and that it is not a contaminate to the recycle stream.

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Dr. Charles J. Lancelot, the PEC’s Executive Director and a veteran of 40 years in the plastics industry, emphasized that to date, the PEC and its members companies in fact have produced a large body of laboratory-scale testing data with these additive systems. “These tests are executed under conditions that have been carefully worked out to come as closely as possible in the laboratory to conditions found in actual US landfills,” said Dr. Lancelot. He noted that it is widely recognized in the industry that biodegradation occurs in all US landfills receiving waste today at rates dependent upon moisture level, and that the refined laboratory testing conditions in place today approximate those in landfills in the wetter parts of the US, accessible to just under half of the population. “Unlike in commercial composters, which receive only between 5-8% of municipal solid waste and which operate on cycles of 180 days or less, landfill biodegradation processes, even for readily biodegradable food wastes in the wetter landfills, take several years,” said Dr. Lancelot.

“Even so, given the need to ensure that consumers receive accurate biodegradability information, and that they receive it concisely and definitively, the mass of test data available to date understandably is not considered acceptable by California legislators as the adequate, concise proof that consumers need,” notes Sen. McKnight. “So over the course of several months last spring, we presented our standard specification R&D program plans to several California lawmakers and their technical advisors, including Sen. Mark deSaulnier (D-Concord)”. Sen. deSaulnier authored the existing legislation under which the Attorney General’s current action is being taken. Sen. deSaulnier also authored the successor legislation, SB567, signed last month by Gov. Brown and scheduled to replace the existing law on January 01, 2013 with an even broader coverage of all plastic products.

The PEC’s R&D effort as presented to the California Legislature last Spring and as outlined in recent press releases is a long-term research study to produce the first-ever standard specification for the landfill biodegradation of petroleum- and natural gas-derived plastics that have been treated with additives that enhance biodegradation. The organization has partnered with Georgia Tech and North Carolina State University to execute this large-scale research and development program, headed by one of the world’s foremost experts on landfill technology, Professor Morton Barlaz of North Carolina State. The work was recently described in a news release from Georgia Tech. http://gtresearchnews.gatech.edu/biodegradation-of-plastics/. Once developed, the standard specification will reliably project the landfill biodegradation rates for a given PEC-certified product in a given range of landfills over a given range of moisture conditions with much more certainty and much more concisely for the consumer than has been possible today. Such full-scale performance criteria are not available from the best of today’s laboratory test data.

“The conversations among the PEC and the Legislature culminated in a landmark meeting in which an agreement was reached with both Senator deSaulnier and with CAW to allow the time needed for the PEC to complete the development of the biodegradation standard specification that the Legislature wanted,” Sen. McKnight said. The result of this meeting was to extend the implementation date for SB567 from January 01, 2012 to January 01, 2013. “Given this mandate to get the standard specification job done by that time, the PEC’s members made the major commitment required to push the project through,” according to Sen. McKnight.

“We would like to think that the three companies currently cited could cooperate with Attorney General Harris’s office and apply any needed qualifications to their claims based on the weight of the test evidence already in hand with the understanding that the agreed-to standard specification program is being run to completion,” said Sen. McKnight. “After all, assuming that the R&D indeed produces the needed standard specification and that it is incorporated into a further amended SB567 by January 01, 2013, the 2008 law will have been repealed thereby and the cited companies will be in compliance with the new law.”

About the Plastics Environmental Council

The PEC is a consortium of businesses, independent scientists and academics, engineers, landfill and compost operators, and environmental groups. Our goal is to assist our members in promoting the efficacy of state-of-the-market technology to facilitate the biodegradation of conventional petroleum-derived plastics in landfills and related disposal environments. For more information, please visit: http://pec-us.org/.

Main Office
Charles J. Lancelot, Ph.D., (770) 475-8867
Cell: (678) 296-6158
Fax: (770) 753-0164
Executive Director
charles_lancelot@msn.com
or
West Coast Office
Clifford Moriyama, (916) 685-4853
Cell: (916) 215-5215
Fax: (916) 848-3626
Executive Vice President
cliff_moriyama@pec-us.org

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In response to the recent media coverage regarding the California Attorney General filing a lawsuit against companies doing business in California that are labeling their product packaging as “biodegradable”. At this time ENSO Plastics is unable to comment specifically about the details of any such lawsuit as we have not had the opportunity to read the lawsuit.

We do however, strongly believe in our company’s mission to rid the world of plastic pollution and have been dedicated for the past three years in bringing the most sound environmental plastic solutions to market. We stand behind our technology and the claims that our company makes in stating that standard plastics enhanced with our biodegradable additive are fully recyclable and if placed in an environment with microbes, will naturally biodegrade.

We in no way claim that our technology is the silver bullet to solving the massive plastic pollution issue our world faces. It is however a huge step in the right direction and a cost effective solution that can be implemented within todays manufacturing and end-of-life options. We do recognize that a key component in continuing to move towards the perfect solution is to address the sourcing issue of plastics and to move away from fossil fuel based polymers. Our company is one of a few companies who are diligently working towards offering renewable bio-polymers (with the same physical properties) that will address the sourcing issue which also provides a fully recyclable and naturally biodegradable end-of-life option. We also recognize that our industry is young and we have a ways to go to improving the processes to allow our industry to mature as needed. We are continually improving the testing process and working with organizations to provide more thorough data and information for the public.

Each of us have contributed in one way or another to our global plastic pollution issue and it will be up to each of us to work together to solve the very problem we created. The public is ready for change and is looking for more environmental packaging and plastic solutions. It is unfortunate that such a law could get passed that would inhibit biodegradable technologies from being labeled as such. We fully support the premise of the law to prevent “greenwashing”, but do not agree that banning or preventing the use of proper labeling of a package as a step toward solving that problem. We believe consumers should be allowed to know if their product packaging is biodegradable and if so, provided with the details of how and in what environments the packaging will biodegrade.

It is also unfortunate that this law specifically allows the use of product packaging which is compostable to be labeled as “compostable”, but for competing technologies such as ours, makes it illegal for companies to properly label their packaging as “biodegradable”. It leads one to question the true intent behind the law, especially when that law was supported and sponsored by the compostable plastics industry organization. It’s unfortunate, because there is currently very little infrastructure in place for composting facilities to accept compostable plastics. As a result, tons of compostable plastics end up in either the recycle stream or in landfill environments; neither provides the environmental benefit of the product. In our view of greenwashing, a company making a claim to an environmental benefit that cannot be achieved is the most serious form of “greenwashing”.

ENSO Plastics has all intentions of working with the California Attorney General to comply with the labeling law. We will continue forward with pursuing our mission to help solve the world’s plastic pollution issue and continue to improve the science and validity of our young industry. We would invite everyone to join with us in our efforts towards a cleaner future.

Sincerely,
Danny Clark
President
ENSO Plastics

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Biodegradable Additives Play Critical Role in Helping Solve the Plastics in Landfill Issue

Milton, GA, OCTOBER 24, 2011 — The Plastics Environmental Council (PEC) today announced the
sponsorship of a research study to produce the first standard specification for the landfill
biodegradation of petroleum- and natural gas-derived plastics that have been treated with additives
that enhance biodegradation. The PEC is undertaking the development of the biodegradation standard
specification to build confidence in the efficacy of plastics additives with regulators, consumers and
businesses. Plastic additives that speed up the breakdown of plastic in landfills, without affecting their
performance during use, are critically important to helping reduce the volume of plastic waste in
landfills.

Despite the fact that readily consumer-separated items such as soda and milk bottles are collected and
recycled at increasing rates, the majority of plastics simply cannot be recycled for a variety of reasons
including contamination, collection and logistics costs, second end-use limitations, etc. According to
the United States Environmental Protection Agency, 13 million tons of plastic containers and packaging
ended up in landfills in 2008. The PEC’s effort to develop a landfill biodegradation specification standard
is intended to address this issue.

To develop the standard specification, PEC has partnered with Georgia Tech and North Carolina State
University to conduct a large-scale research and development program, headed by a leading expert on
landfill technology, Professor Morton Barlaz of North Carolina State. Professor Barlaz and his team will
study waste degradation rates under both laboratory and field (landfill) conditions of petroleum- and
natural gas-derived plastics that have been treated with PEC member companies’ additives to produce
the standard specification. Once developed, the standard specification will reliably project the landfill
biodegradation rates for a given PEC-certified product in a given range of landfills over a given range of
moisture conditions with much more certainty than is possible today.

“While we already know from various independent laboratory tests that our member companies’
additives are expected to be effective at speeding up the biodegradation of petroleum and natural gasderived
plastics in landfills, this will be the first-of-its-kind study to verify biodegradation rates of plastic
waste treated with such additives under both laboratory and field conditions,” said Senator Robert
McKnight, PEC Board chairman. “The new standard will allow us to develop a simple certification seal
that will inspire confidence in these additives from businesses, consumers and regulators.”

While most plastics from hydrocarbons are recyclable, they are not biodegradable without the addition
of chemical additives and remain in landfills virtually forever. Chemical additives, many of which are
approved for use by the Food & Drug Administration (FDA), are added to the plastic resins during the
manufacturing process and do not alter the final product’s performance, are undetectable by the end
user, and products containing them can be processed through current recycling methods.

The PEC expects the landfill biodegradability certification seal to be available in approximately 18
months.

PEC member companies include Wincup, Ecologic, Bio-Tec Environmental, ECM Biofilms, ENSO Plastics,
Pure Plastics, C-Line Products, Inc., Ecolab, and FP International.

About the Plastics Environmental Council
The PEC is a consortium of businesses, independent scientists and academics, engineers, landfill and compost
operators, and environmental groups. Our goal is to assist our members in promoting the efficacy of state-of-themarket
technology to facilitate the biodegradation of conventional petroleum-derived plastics in landfills and
related disposal environments. For more information, please visit: http://pec-us.org/.

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A shopper experience study done by The Integer Group and M/A/R/C Research has revealed some anticipated results. The results of the study showed that 1 in four shoppers are willing to pay more for a product if they feel they are contributing to helping the environment. As far as age goes, 18 -34 year old shoppers take more time to embrace purchases that benefit the environment than shoppers between the ages of 35-44 and 55-64. This is great news for those wanting to find a earth friendly alternative to traditional plastics like ENSO biodegradable plastics.
It’s often assumed that college aged shoppers are likely to jump on the trend of environmentally friendly products but the study shows they are not willing to pay more to do so. This is not so surprising considering most college students are on a budget, however even college students will fork out the money for products they must have. College aged shoppers do not stay in their niche for long and this is something to consider. Going green can expand your market; if your product has typically been targeted to that age group…going green can expand your market to the older consumers who are more likely to pay a premium for green. This is something to consider when marketing your made over product.
Products that give not only supply a functional need but an emotional benefit make a product feel worthwhile to consumers. It’s these types of products that grow return customers because there is an emotional attachment or an emotional need for them to purchase the product. Figuring out how to position your product, and market that emotional factor is unique to every product but once you find it, you will succeed. This can directly apply to those companies who target their products to younger, say college aged shoppers. If you are wanting to go green and be successful your product needs to give consumers especially college aged kids on a budget, that emotional benefit so that they will feel they can spend the premium.

http://www.beverageworld.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=39183:… 7/20/2011

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It’s no secret that ENSO Plastics’ biodegradable plastic technology brings the most desirable premium feature to any plastic product on the market wanting to go green. Interested? Intrigued? If you are attending PACK EXPO in Vegas get excited, because ENSO Plastics will be there and making noise in a way that you have not seen before. ENSO is bring the Plastic monster to PACK EXPO!

If you haven’t heard of PACK EXPO you’re missing out because PACK is North America’s largest packaging and processing show. With the opportunity to see 1600 world class suppliers, explore cutting edge technologies for all vertical markets , and discover a brand new array of products, why would you miss out on expanding your network and broadening your packaging knowledge?!

PACK EXPO 2011 | September 26–28, 2011
Las Vegas Convention Center | Las Vegas, Nevada, USA
http://www.packexpo.com/pelv2011/public/enter.aspx

Whether you are just attending, sporting a booth, or if we have intrigued you enough to make last minute plans to attend, I hope to see you in Vegas! Please do not hesitate to contact me if you would like me to visit your booth or would like to personally meet and engage an ENSO Business Development professional.

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There are many ways to market a “green” product, like ENSO plastics.  Whether you are an established brand just now going green or a new company developing a brand, there are different routes you can go.  Budget is a huge factor in the marketing process. If your company is trying to keep the cost down, the internet is a great way to create a green presence and an exciting hype among consumers without breaking the bank. My recommendation to new brands is to invest in your packaging, and creating that unique image that will draw consumers to your product in any store.  Developing your brand is key because it is how consumers perceive your product.  Think about it, why should consumers buy your product over some other brand?  If your product is very similar to theirs, how can you differentiate yours?  As a consumer I can honestly say that in a first time purchase, the design and packaging of a product can make the sale.  If the product does not live up to its packaging, 99% of the time I will try a different brand.  Pricing is another key factor,  this varies depending on the product but consumers are willing to pay if the product is outstanding…however we all have are limits and consumers need to feel that we are getting our money’s worth. When asked 62% of shoppers say that green product options can impact unplanned purchases, 50% of all shoppers are willing to pay a premium for green products and 79% of shoppers are more likely to pay a premium for green in Grocery Stores.  Regardless of income, age or gender the influence of GREEN marketing on actual purchases and upsells was largely consistent. Let me give you an example.  A beverage product that has come to a competitive marketplace recently has differentiated themselves greatly by their packaging, the quality of the beverages, the emotional benefit you receive from each product and a slightly lifted price or $2.49 in most stores.  While they are not the cheapest beverages on the market, they have branded and differentiated themselves outstandingly.  Regardless of the fact that they are not necessarily a “green” brand…the concept of creating your brand and the perception consumers take in is relevant.  Once you have your green product, your general plan, and your website and are ready to launch there are a couple of recommendations I have.

1. When you sign up with ENSO, we share the cost of a joint Press Release.  You can spend a lot of money on these because they get great coverage and give the opportunity to educate consumers and the media about your product and your packaging.  With ENSO, get two for the price of one to really launch your new, green brand.
2. Second, make sure you know and understand the habits of your target market. It is important to find the right person to handle your social media accounts because they need to know how to connect with your consumers and potential customers. Giving consumers incentives to return to your social media pages is vital if you want to build your brand recognition.  To build your presence online try designing and selling branded apparel or conduct unique giveaways that will get consumers involved.
3. Identify a cause your brand can get behind.  For instance “Earth Friendly Plastics”.  Integrating a cause to your marketing strategy could potentially be huge for your company’s success. In a survey, 88% of those asked say it is acceptable for companies to involve a cause or issue in their marketing, 85% have a more positive image of a product or company when it supports a cause they care about and 80% are likely to switch brands, similar in price and quality, to one that supports a cause. Not only are consumers willing to switch among similar brands, they are also willing to step outside their comfort zones. When a brand supports a cause: 61% of Americans say they would be willing to try it (even if it is unfamiliar to them), 46% would try a generic or private-label brand and nearly one-in-five consumers (19%) would be willing to purchase a more expensive brand.
4. Like it or not, your customers live in a digital world where people are plugged in. Finding popular “youtubers” and bloggers that fit your target demographic and contacting them to review your product can be as effective as pay some high dollar “celebrity”.  Utilizing Google ad-words and facebook ads can be a great way to experiment in driving traffic to your site and to your facebook page but be warned:  they can be expensive…hiring a professional consultant is advisable.

The final important tip that I am going to give you is vital to marketing a green product: You must always think of your consumers and potential customers because after all, they are buying your product. Educate consumers about the “greenness” of your product as clearly as you possibly can, let them know that this is a premium feature of your product. Consult with the manufacturer you’re working with about proper terms and ways to educate your consumers without boring them.  Establishing a portion on your site and your social media pages that is dedicated to educating consumers on your green technology not only builds trust with your consumers but makes them feel like they are doing some good by purchasing your product.

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So WHAT?!

There is no question the biodegradation of traditional plastics is a reality, and YES plastics can now biodegrade in a landfill.  However, as was so eloquently posed to me recently, “SO WHAT!?” We make plastics for every purpose imaginable and when we are done with them, we thoughtlessly toss the plastics in the landfill out of sight, out of mind…but “SO WHAT”!? Does it really matter if those plastics last forever or for just a few years?  “SO WHAT”!?

Let’s look at the past 50 years: We used 7 million tons of plastic in 1960.  We increased that to 196 million tons in 2005 and are expected to exceed 365 million tons in 2015. “SO WHAT”!? We put almost 90% of our plastic waste in our landfills. That equates to over 300 million tons of plastic every year in the landfill. TONS.  Billions of tons filling up our landfills with plastic that will last pretty much forever.  And each of us continues to add TONS more every day.  If that is not enough to make you jump out of your seat and upgrade all of your plastic products to biodegradable…

Let’s look at things from a different view; The ENSO view.

Biodegradable Plastics –

Because we can reduce the volume of our landfills

Because we can build fewer landfills

Because every biodegradable plastic product you use can be converted to clean energy

Because we can choose plastics that work with nature rather than against it

Because your products can create a better world

Because WE created the mess and continue to do so

Because it’s this generation’s responsibility, not our children’s or our grandchildren’s

Because today you have a choice and tomorrow may be too late

Because your customers want it

Because you know it is the right thing to do

“SO WHAT” will you choose?

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There are three key market factors when it comes to new innovation: perception, influence, and force.  Force is ultimately legislation (laws); legislation gets passed in most cases due to perception and influence.  Consumers make their choices based on what ideology or technology to support based on both perception and influence.  Force is a way to bypass both perception and influence; the irony is that consumers don’t usually realize this.

An extreme example of this would be back when it was generally accepted that the earth was flat.  The theory that the earth was flat, ultimately lead to a belief for most of the world.  The science community was instrumental in providing both the perception and influence which was then imposed by force.  This then became a belief so that when new information came along that may suggest that the earth may indeed be round, that information was strongly influenced to the point of force to be kept from the public.  The perception of what most people knew at that time was also a heavy influence in preventing the new information from becoming publicly accepted.  As we have learned from the history books it took hundreds of years to work through the belief and ideology that the earth was indeed not flat.

With any new innovation, there are changes that need to take place both from a knowledgeable and an educational perspective (perception and influence).  It is crucial that we humans make room so that our old processes and ways of thinking don’t prevent us from expanding our understanding of things.  This is especially important when it comes to those solutions which are better for the environment (specifically how we look at, treat and handle plastics).

For example, I grew up with a strong understanding of composting – it was natural, creates wonderful rich soil, feels good to do and grounds us to the natural aspect of who we are.  However, it also lead to a few misunderstandings about the process of biodegradation; the main one being that biodegradation must always be a quick process (reasonably short period of time).  When it comes to composting food waste its understandable the beliefs I picked up.  But what about other items such as a decaying tree trunk or slower biodegradation found in anaerobic (without oxygen) environments?

There are things we were never taught or more appropriately didn’t know because we hadn’t yet created the massive plastic pollution issue we are faced with today.  It’s a fact that humans generate A LOT of trash.  All creatures generate trash or waste materials but we humans have figured out how to create trash at a level that isn’t sustainable.  There are efforts, and have been efforts for many years now; to reduce, reuse and recycle.  These are very important words to live by; however the reality is that they haven’t been that effective in solving the issue of plastic waste.

Our company ENSO Plastics was created in 2008 by like minded individuals to solve our plastic pollution issue.  ENSO Plastics has developed a blend of biodegradable resins which can be used in most of the major plastic manufactured today.  Our biodegradable resins are designed specifically to be co-mingled in with the existing recycling process without contaminating the current recycling infrastructure.  The amazing aspect of our technology is that it does not negatively impact the recycling infrastructure.  For the 95% of plastics that do not make it into the recycle stream and end up discarded into landfill environments our biodegradable resins are designed to interact with the microbes found in nature to naturally biodegrade the entire plastic material back into natural compounds and gases.

The microscopic world that we live in is amazing and yet barely understood.  Microbes have been found in almost every place and condition on our planet and are well at work in nature; as well as landfill environments.  There are many who are still relaying on inaccurate past understandings about our microscopic world.  It is time that we open ourselves to new understanding and knowledge.

Biodegradable plastic additive technologies have been around for years.  The growth of this industry is a fairly new endeavor and ENSO Plastics is extremely excited to be part of this maturing industry.  Sure we have A LOT of education that needs to be done so that the public better understands what is happening in the microscopic world around us.   We must push through the cloud of past understanding and knowledge and ideologies that promote limited vision.  ENSO Plastics is a significant part of the solution for plastic pollution.  I believe that perception (knowledge and understanding) and influence (getting involved) are the keys to making improved changes for us individually and for the planet.

Einstein once said, “We must be open to thinking about problems with a different mindset than we had when we created the problem.”

Sincerely,

Danny Clark

President

ENSO Plastics

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We have just returned from Atlanta, Georgia where the first PEC (Plastics Environmental Council)   conference was held.  As you recall, ENSO organized the EPC (Environmental Plastics Coalition) to fight the proposed bill AB1454 in the state of California, and many answered the call resulting in a successful veto of the anti-competitive, and anti-truth in labeling bill.  From that successful organizational effort, all saw the need to continue the effort of keeping the market friendly and educated on biodegradable plastic products on a national level, so from this initial organization, the PEC was formed.  I was truly floored by the amount of “top in their field” experts who are participating in the PEC.  It was held on the campus of Georgia Tech. (who is a major participant of research and support of our technology as it applies to the marketplace) and as everyone in attendance introduced themselves, it became quite apparent that we had a second to none force on our side.  From landfill research engineers, to polymer scientists, to political and legal professionals, the deck is extremely “stacked” in our favor to a solid future in the marketplace.

That being said, no one works for free, and although these individuals are in an attitude of assisting the progress of environmental friendly plastics, their activity and research needs funding.  Please contact me to get more details on how you can get involved.  Some of this year’s activities for the PEC will include; Creating an ASTM standard specification for Anaerobic and Aerobic biodegradation (a pass/fail specification), work in California with creating a good green packaging law, FTC education, biodegradability certification, massive amounts of pertinent information regarding how your products behave in landfill environments, recycle stream impacts, and more.

As you might already know, ENSO has already delved deeply into most of these items, now the good news is that we have more individuals assisting in the cause and the numbers are growing!  Please let me know if you have any questions about what is going on, and also find out how you can get involved!

Sincerely,

Del Andrus

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AT&T to use sugarcane, cut petroleum, in plastic packaging

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This isn’t the most recent use for those up to date with cokes plant bottle. This article however goes into a more detailed business view of Cokes decision and long term goals. Definitely worth the read, comment and let me know what you think!

http://www.greenwashingindex.com/ad_single.php?id=7083

Coca-Cola in green bottles

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sustainable-business/coca-cola-green-plant-bottles

The software drinks giant has come up with a technology to use plant material in plastic bottles. But it is not an easy task

Coca-Cola has come up with a formula that will reduce the use of plastic in making bottles. Photograph: George Frey/Rueters

You could forgive Scott Vitters the occasional spate of Monday morning blues. As global head of sustainable packaging at The Coca-Cola Company, he has an unenviable job. Some might even call it impossible. Every day, consumers around the world slurp their way through 1.5 billion Coca-Cola products. Packaging those servings accounts for the most sizeable chunk of the company’s environmental footprint. Now Vitters’ bosses back at Coca-Cola’s Atlanta HQ are saying they want to double sales over the next decade.

Yet today finds him surprisingly upbeat. Hitting UK shelves today is PlantBottle, what Vitters calls a “breakthrough technology” destined to green not just Coca-Cola but the entire packaging industry.

“We know that we need to do more with less and we know that we can do that through technological innovations like PlantBottle”, he says.

So how does it work? The theory is simple. Plastic bottles are currently made out of a variety of petroleum-based materials. What the chemistry wonks in Coca-Cola’s labs have done is replace some of those with plant materials.

The result is to reduce reliance on fossil fuels and cut carbon emissions by 8-10% in the process. Furthermore, the plant-based solution is an identical match with polyethylene terephthalate (PET), a recyclable plastic already widely used by Coca-Cola.

“This isn’t about an innovation that’s just a little green widget or flavour of the day … We’re taking the next step of the journey to decouple our plastic from fossil fuels”, Vitters insists.

The numbers seem to back him. Coca-Cola expects to shift over 200 million packs in the UK this year as it switches 500ml bottles of Coca-Cola, Diet Coke and Coke Zero to the greener formula.

The UK is no guinea pig. PlantBottle has already been around for a couple of years, rolled out first in Denmark to coincide with the UN climate change summit in Copenhagen. Coca-Cola currently produces around five billion packs in twenty markets.

Vitters is adamant that the new bottle makes long-term financial as well as environmental sense. Although the plant alternative currently costs more than petroleum, he expects that to drop to parity or below by 2020 – due to predicted oil price increases and efficiencies in the PlantBottle supply chain.

Recyclability is another big win. As one of the toughest, most efficient polymers around, PET can be reused many times. That way, the plant material stays within a “continuous loop” – one up on biodegradable plastics that go to landfill and “then sit like a petroleum bottle”.

The impacts across industry could also be profound. Coca-Cola is working with Heinz to help it produce a PlantBottle-packaged ketchup. Toyota is also said to be interested to use the technology for the seats in its cars.

“Across all commodity plastics, this same pathway could be followed. For HDPE [High Density Polyethylene] plastic, polyethenes, films and even PVC”, says Vitters.

Although Coca-Cola is in the process of patenting the application of the plant-based technology (known as Bio-MEG) to containers, Vitters insists that Coca-Cola ultimately intends for the technology to be open. “This is bigger than Coke”, he says magnanimously. Vitters isn’t even again arch rivals Pepsi getting a look in too. “We believe that our competition will need to be part of this journey.” Coca Cola’s sustainable packaging chief may have skipped to work this morning, but his job is still far from complete.

Work to do

PlantBottle is a step in the right direction, but it’s far from the final destination. The plant-based alternative only covers ethyleneglycol – around 22.5% of PET by weight. Coca-Cola has yet to develop a commercially viable plant solution for the other 77.5%, comprising the petroleum-based compound terephthalic acid.

Vitters admits that his marketing team would have been “much happier” if the ratios were the other way around. As it is, the US beverage giant hopes to have a market-ready, plant-based alternative to terephthalic acid by 2015. A date for its integration into brand packaging is yet to be set.

His problems don’t stop there. ‘Plant-based materials’ all sounds very wholesome and green, but not if their production requires excessive water use, pushes up food prices (by using arable land for non-food purposes) or relies on genetically-modified technologies.

As the Coca-Cola packaging head admits: “We knew inherently that just because it’s a plant, it isn’t better for the environment by any stretch of the imagination…this programe fundamentally rests on the ability to demonstrate proven social and environmental sustainability.”.”

For the moment, the company has turned to Brazil and the bio-ethanol extracted from the country’s vast sugar cane plantations. As a major buyer of Brazilian sugar already, Vitters says Coca-Cola has a “comfort for getting the programme started” there.. Not that the social and environmental record of Brazillian sugar is perfect. Far from it. Vitters admits there is still “a lot of growth room to meet [Coca Cola's] sustainability criteria”. As a result, the company is working with WWF towards a sugar certification scheme in Brazil.

In the future, Vitters conceded that it’s not sustainable to “source only from Brazillian sugar cane. If PlantBottle takes off in the way he predicts, Coca-Cola will have to look elsewhere, as well as to other plants. Excessive demand could present supply problems as well as pushing sugar prices up – something, Vitters jokes, that “wouldn’t be a good career choice” for him.

Wisely wary

The clever polymer chemists in Coca-Cola’s labs have identified other potential feedstocks, but the company is wary about jumping in too fast.

“We need to be very careful about expanding use of land at a time when we think agricultural environments for feeding a growing population are going to be essential”, says Vitters, who acknowledges the need to proceed “responsibly”..

The US drinks giant is therefore looking to second-generation technologies focused on agricultural waste, such as switch grass, pine bark, corn husks and fruit peel.

Even then, challenges still exist. Supply is one. Finding such agricultural bi-products in commercial volumes is no easy task. Land productivity represents another issue. In many parts of the world, agricultural waste is typically returned to the soil as a natural fertiliser.

“Disruptive” though PlantBottle may be, it falls far from enabling Vitters to fulfil his sustainable packaging brief completely. Commercialising a plant-based solution for the terephthalic acid portion of PET would help considerably. But we still have to wait for 2020 until Coca-Cola bottles of all sizes boast the 22.5% plant content.

Nagging at his mind as well must be the fact that Coca-Cola was recently thrown out of the prestigious Dow Jones Sustainability Index. More galling still, the Index praised Pepsi as a “supersector leader”.

There’s a silver lining, though as Dow Jones did award Coca-Cola an “uptick” for its packaging and material sourcing – another reason Vitters’ Monday shouldn’t be too blue.

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Max Ben-Hamoo fights bottled water — with better bottlesStewart Oksenhorn
The Aspen Times
Aspen, CO, Colorado

Aspen native Max Ben-Hamoo is the president of WorldLife Water, which has introduced water in a biodegradable bottle.Stewart Oksenhorn / The Aspen Times

ASPEN — As a kid growing up in Aspen, Max Ben-Hamoo was intensely interested in science; he went on to major in environmental science at the University of Denver. But as he got older Ben-Hamoo became more practical-minded, and after getting his bachelor’s degree, he changed directions and earned an MBA, also from the University of Denver.

“Once I realized how much more powerful business is than science, I wanted to combine my passion for the environment with some knowledge of business, and grow that,” the 25-year-old said.

Ben-Hamoo’s current career is a near-perfect reflection of the development of that sort of thinking. Where in his childhood, Ben-Hamoo disdained single-use bottles of water — “I gave my parents trouble when they got bottled water: ‘Get something you can refill,’” he said — he has adjusted his perspective and has joined the bottled-water business. But with a twist. WorldLife Water, the company which he serves as president, has introduced what Ben-Hamoo says is the first single-use water bottle to use completely biodegradable plastic. The bottles are manufactured by an Arizona company that treats the PET plastic with an additive that attracts microbes, thus speeding the decomposition of the material. (The bottles are also made without BPA, a plastic which Canada has banned as a toxic substance.)

WorldLife Water arrived on shelves two weeks ago at the Highlands Pizza Co., at Aspen Highlands. “I asked the guy there if he wanted it, and he said, ‘Yeah, looks great. I think people will love it,’” Ben-Hamoo said. “I think he understands people will want it.”

For the moment, Highlands Pizza is the only place to find WorldLife Water, but Ben-Hamoo believes retailers, especially in Colorado, will see things the way Highlands Pizza did: Customers who are attached to the convenience of bottled water will happily switch to a product that is relatively easy on the environment.

“It’s the conscious consumer we’re after, someone who will notice that biodegradable plastic is important for the future of our environment,” Ben-Hamoo said, adding that he is working on adding accounts in Aspen, where he visits frequently to see family, and Denver, where he now lives. “And Colorado is the best place for that — most people have a good understanding of that connection. We’re optimistic because we’ve gotten a great response from everyone we’ve shown it to. It’s like people were waiting for it. They feel bad about their bottled water habit, and this helps them do something about it.”

Ben-Hamoo said making a bottle biodegradable costs 70-80 percent more than a regular plastic bottle, but the added manufacturing expense results in only a slight increase in price for the customer. A 500-milliliter bottle of WorldLife, he said, will sell for between $1 and $2. The trick will be to get the big retailers who emphasize low prices to stock it.

WorldLife was founded two years ago by Kris Kalnow, a Cincinnati resident who has a house in Snowmass, and whose son, Chip, was a friend of Ben-Hamoo’s in college: “She founded the company, then quickly realized, while she wanted to keep it going, she didn’t want to be the one running it,” Ben-Hamoo said. “She knew my background and thought I’d be a good one to run it.”

Taking over the business has required some readjustment of his perspective. Now, instead of shouting out against bottled water — and seeing its use more than quadruple in his lifetime — Ben-Hamoo is on the inside, trying to make the product more environmentally palatable.

“I understand how much bottled water is out there; people are going to buy it,” he said. “If we can replace the standard market with this product, that’s better. It’s better for the earth.” (Ben-Hamoo added that the best thing that can be done with plastic bottles is to recycle them, but that, in practice, some 70 percent of bottles end up in landfills.)

Ben-Hamoo is currently the only employee of WorldLife. While he looks to line up some interns, he is handling sales, marketing, manufacturing, warehousing and accounting. And while he gains broad business experience, his curiosity about science hasn’t died. In the yard at his father’s house are buried several WorldLife bottles, so Ben-Hamoo can monitor for himself how quickly his product biodegrades.

stewart@aspentimes.com

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By LX Group on 12 September 2011

Sustainable Future: How The Green Trend Has Affected Product Design

It’s difficult to determine when the green trend started – whether it was back in the 90s when we all decided to save the whales and ban aerosol sprays or whether it was much recently when Al Gore won an Oscar and Nobel Prize for his travelling PowerPoint-documentary “An Inconvenient Truth.” But, no matter when it began, there’s no denying that people these days have become more environmentally conscious, and the green trend is here to stay. Product designers have realized that everyone is going eco-crazy, whether that means going on green vacations, using green electronic products, and even having green weddings. And today, when designing any product, whether it’s a computer, a couch or the latest smart phone, being environmentally-friendly is almost a requirement. Of course, this goes without saying that green product demand has also increased and environmentally friendly products not only save money, but get profits flowing in.

Let’s look at the ways that this green trend has influenced product design.

‘Green’ Product Design Criteria
To design a truly green product, it must meet some or all of these criteria:
• Be non-toxic so as not to harm the environment, people and pets; In electronics products for example, must contain lead-free pcb boards.
• It can be recycled or recyclable, to reduce the amount of trash in the landfills;
• It must use energy responsibly, whether that means that products use only renewable energy sources such as wind, solar or geothermal power or will reduce energy use, such as electronic products that go into ‘sleep mode’ to conserve energy.
• To a certain extent, it must support environmental responsibility, such as eco-friendly practices, creating more green or local jobs, and even use fair and truthful marketing when selling their products

‘Green’ Materials
Understanding the materials used for any process is essential for any project and one of the first things many designers must master is the use of materials. Unlike 20 years ago, eco-friendly materials are now more available than ever. Eco-friendly plastics for example, which can be recycled or biodegradable, are now more widely available, but are also as tough and durable as their regular counterparts. Take the ubiquitous plastic water bottle, for example – simple to design but the material takes hundreds of years to decompose, and is quite toxic to the environment. Arizona-based Enso Bottles has developed a truly biodegradable plastic, by using an additive that helps the bottle degrade in as little as 250 days, without releasing any harmful gasses. Electronic manufacturers also use green materials for their own products. For example, LCD TVs which use carbon neutral biopaint, smart phones with bioplastic enclosures and electronic products which feature lead-free electronics pcb boards.

Product Manufacture
It’s not enough that your materials are eco-friendly, but the way you create your product should be as well. Consumers truly care about how a product is made, and so the construction of a product must also fit within green standards. For example, Kyocera, a Japanese firm, creates their own energy from solar power generating systems for their manufacturing plants and offices around the world. One of the problems of any manufacturing plant is not just the energy they use, but the amount of waste produced. Canada-based OKI Printing solutions, which produces printers and printing accessories, have reduced the wastes and harmful materials from their process, including the total removal of hexavalent chromium from their screws and implementing a waste segregation policy which has reduced their waste by 70%.

Electronic waste or e-waste is another prevalent problem, this time on the side of electronic product designers. In many cases, such as in with the CEH (Center for Environmental Health) in the United States, electronic design houses are encouraged to, design products that are eco-friendly and safe for the environment, whether that means creating non-toxic programs, or creating products which can easily be recycled.

Product Disposal
Aside from just waste disposal, the end-of-life disposal is just as important – what happens when a product is no longer useful and must be replaced? Previously, manufacturers just let their old products linger in the landfills, but for today’s environmentally-conscious consumer, that simply won’t do. Many manufacturers recycle their products, or donate their waste to other companies or organizations who can reuse their old materials. Electronics designers and manufacturers should, from the very beginning of the design process, should create “Take-back” campaigns wherein consumers are encouraged to bring their used electronics back to the manufacturer for proper disposal or better yet, recycling. Apple Computers in 2009, for example, figured out that they were emitting 9.6 million metric tons of greenhouses gases every year. So, within the next year, they re-evaluated their entire process – from designing, to manufacturing, transportation, product use, recycling and even how they their facilities (office, stores etc.) and made numerous changes that drastically reduced their carbon emissions. Their biggest expenditure when it came to carbon emissions was the manufacturing process itself (45%) and so they drastically reduced this by redesigning their products to be smaller, thinner and lighter, thus dramatically lowering their over-all carbon footprint.

The green trend, it seems, is here to stay. Electronic product designers and manufacturers must comply or be left behind. By keeping their products and processes eco-friendly, everyone – the designers, manufacturers and even the retailers are not just protecting their bottom-line, but the environment as well, ensuring that we all preserve the planet one product at a time.

image http://moralcoral.wordpress.com/2011/05/16/sustainability-for-dummies/

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Cheese makes a tasty addition to any meal, but did you ever guess it could be used for packaging?

Researchers say that a biodegradable plastic made from cheese byproducts could reduce the need for synthetic packaging and keep useful materials out of the landfill.

The bioplastic made from whey protein is the result of the three-year WheyLayer project, a European Commission-funded research and development project in Spain’s Catalonia region that aims to solve a common packaging woe.

In the food industry, oxidation of oils, fats and other components can lead to unpleasant colors and flavors. So, keeping oxygen out of packaged food is essential.

SEE: 5 Absurdly Over-Packaged Foods

Plastics like PE (polyethylene) and PP (polypropylene) are excellent moisture-blockers, but to keep out oxygen, they must be coated with expensive synthetic polymers.

Most of these polymers – such as EVOH (ethylene vinyl alcohol polymer) and PVDC (polyvinylidene chloride polymer) – are petroleum-based and extremely difficult to reuse, as it is almost impossible to separate each layer for individual recycling.

Whey, the milk protein byproduct of cheese production, provides similar oxygen-blocking properties, but it’s much cheaper and more environmentally friendly.

The new packaging – developed by Barcelona-based research company IRIS – replaces synthetics with whey protein-coated plastic fibers, which could save loads of money and make packaging more readily recyclable.

After packaging is used, whey protein can be chemically or enzymatically removed, and underlying plastic can be easily recycled or reused to make new packaging.

RECYCLING MYSTERY: Bioplastics

In addition to saving money and raw materials, the new application could also keep millions of tons of whey out of European landfills. Each year, European cheese factories produce 50 million tons of whey. Some of it is reused as food additives, but almost 40 percent is thrown away.

Discarded whey collected from cheese producers can be filtered and dried to extract the pure whey protein, which can be used in several thin layers to create a plastic film for use in food packaging.

While the packaging is subject to patent applications, researchers expect it to appear in consumer products within a year. The bioplastic is expected to be used for cosmetics packaging first, and food packaging applications will follow.

The technology will likely be used in the European market at first. But many companies from around the globe showed interest in the packaging when researchers took it to the Interpack international trade fair for packaging and processes back in May.

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Its about that time for our Free Monthly Webinar

Sept 7th, 9-10am PDT

Sign up here

In the competitive industry of earth friendly plastics the available information can become overwhelming. Our ENSO sales & marketing webinar will bring you back down to earth. We will explain the alternatives to traditional plastics, analyzing the pros and cons of the leading products on the market.

Ever wonder just how your supposed to market a green product? We have got that covered too! Don’t hesitate, you don’t want to miss out on this one of a kind webinar!

If you have not attended a previous ENSO webinar, you are in for a exciting experience. Not only will you be learning from the leading experts in the industry, but you will know that the information you are receiving is accurate & applicable. As you absorb the information throughout the webinar, you will probably experience a feeling of enlightenment and a urge to know more. This is natural and we have planned for this! At the end of every webinar you are encouraged to ask any questions on your mind!

We look forward to your virtual attendance at our free webinar!

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So I saw an official Heinz ketchup plant bottle yesterday and I felt good and bad about it. Using renewable sources is awesome don’t get me wrong, but it still does not solve the problem of plastic waste in landfills and in nature! Only 5% of plastics get recycled and the rest end up as waste. While going renewable with the Heinz bottle is a great step forward, many consumers are completely oblivious to what the “plant” bottle is. A grad student from Florida conducted a survey asking random consumers questions regarding the plant bottle. 50% of the participants believed that plant bottles are biodegradable. 68% of the participants believe that PET plant based beverage bottles are better than traditional PET plastic bottles because they are biodegradable.  From the results of the survey it is clear that these average consumers are confused of the capabilities of plant based bottles.  Let me know what you think of the new bottles in the comment box below!

Heinz to Use Plant-Based Bottles Made by Coca-Cola

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Group alleges ACC influenced comments about plastics in Calif. curricula

PLASTICS NEWS REPORT
Posted August 22, 2011

WASHINGTON (Aug. 22, 2:35 p.m. ET) — An investigative reporting team alleges that the American Chemistry Council pressured educational officials in California to revise a section of an environmental curriculum to present positive information about plastic shopping bags.

Washington-based ACC says the allegation “distorts and misrepresents” what took place during a public comment period.

The California EPA also issued a statement, saying that all revisions to the Education and Environment Initiative curriculum were made for “accuracy and educational value” and “thoroughly vetted.”

California Watch, a reporting initiative of the Center for Investigative Reporting, claims that Gerald Lieberman, a private consultant hired by California school officials, added a new section to the 11th-grade teachers’ edition textbook called “The Advantages of Plastic Shopping Bags,” with the title and some of the textbook language inserted almost verbatim from letters written by the chemistry council.

California Watch posted the report on its website on Aug. 19.

The group also alleges that Lieberman added a workbook section that asks students to list some advantages of plastic bag, and that the correct answer in the revised teachers’ edition is that “plastic shopping bags are very convenient to use. They take less energy to manufacture than paper bags, cost less to transport and can be reused.”

The claim by California Watch “distorts and misrepresents public process and the role the ACC played in it,” said Steve Russell, ACC’s vice president of plastics. “When CalEPA developed its curricula, the agency … posted an invitation [for public comment] on draft versions of the curricula.”

“We submitted comments in response to the state’s public solicitation for input,” Russell said. “The purpose of our comments was to correct factual inaccuracies and to present a more complete view of plastic bags’ environmental attributes, including their benefits, which were absent from the draft. Our comments, and those of all other stakeholders, were submitted via email and through an online form on CalEPA’s website.”

Lieberman is director of the State Education and Environment Roundtable, a nonprofit group developed by 16 state departments of education to enhance environmental education in schools. He declined to comment on his role in editing the textbook, and referred Plastics News to CalEPA, which defended the EEI curriculum.

“We stand by the integrity of the EEI Curriculum and the open and transparent process in which it was created,” said Lindsey VanLaningham, director of communications for CalEPA. “The curriculum was thoroughly vetted by all appropriate state agencies and was ultimately approved (unanimously) by the California State Board of Education.”

“Throughout the development process, the state made revisions to the curriculum based on two primary factors: (1) accuracy; and (2) educational value,” said VanLaningham. “Teacher feedback supports our belief that the EEI engages students on issues of vital importance to them and their environment, including the role of plastic in our society.”

Regardless, state Sen. Fran Pavley, D-Santa Monica, author of the 2003 legislation that requires that environmental principles and concepts be taught in the state’s public schools, plans to write ask CalEPA officials to tweak the current text to remove language that portrays plastic bags in a favorable light.

The curriculum covers science, history, social studies and the arts, and weaves in environmental principles and concepts. It is currently being tested at 19 school districts that include 140 schools and more than 14,000 students. And an additional 400 school districts have signed up to use it, according to Cal-EPA.

In its letter to CalEPA dated Aug. 14, 2009, ACC said that it felt the lesson plan on Mass Production, Marketing and Consumption in the Roaring Twenties was “extensive in its inaccuracies and bias about plastic and plastic bags.

“The ACC takes exception to the overall tone, instructional approach and the lack of solutions offered — most especially, the lack of mention of the overall solution of plastic recycling,” wrote Alyson Thomas, a senior account executive with Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide, who submitted the letter on behalf of ACC.

“We recommend that the list of concerns related to plastic bags be balanced with a measured response regarding efforts … to promote the recycling of plastic bags,” ACC said.

Plastic bags are referred to as “litter” in the text, ACC said. “To be clear, plastic bags don’t start as litter. They can become litter through behavioral actions leading to inappropriate disposal.”

The new text incorporated that view, as it now says that plastic bags “can become litter,” instead of calling them litter as the original version.

According to California Watch, the first teachers’ edition also had been highly critical of plastic shopping bags, noting the long decomposition rate of the bags and their threat to marine life and ocean health.

That information remains in the text, but a section on the benefits of plastic bags was added, after ACC made its comments.

“To counteract what is perceived as an exclusively negative positioning of plastic bags issues, we recommend adding a section entitled “Benefits of Plastic Shopping Bags,” ACC said in its letter.

It suggested that the text point out that plastic grocery bags require 70 percent less energy to manufacture than paper ones, that lightweight plastic bags save space and fuel in transport, and that paper bags are reusable, and also can be recycled and made into new plastic bags, and plastic lumber for decking, park benches and picnic tables.

“We recommend adding text referring to the second life of plastic products, and the increase in the recycling of plastic bags,” ACC said. “Recovered plastic bags and wraps can be recycled into many products, including backyard decking, fencing, railings, shopping carts and new bags.”

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Cone LLC Releases the 2010 Cone Cause Evolution Study

BOSTON (September 15, 2010) – Forty-one percent of Americans say they have purchased a product in the past year because it was associated with a social or environmental cause (41%), a two-fold increase since Cone first began measuring in 1993 (20%). But even as their purchasing power grows, consumer appetite for socially conscious shopping has yet to be satiated. A full 83 percent of consumers want more of the products, services and retailers they use to benefit causes, according to the new 2010 Cone Cause Evolution Study, the nation’s only 17-year benchmark of cause marketing attitudes and behaviors.

Recession Didn’t Alter Expectations
The nation’s ongoing economic woes have not deterred Americans’ social sentiment, nor their expectations that companies will benefit society. Eighty-one percent said companies should financially support causes at the same level or higher during an economic downturn. It appears business rose to this challenge – nearly two-thirds (64%) of consumers believe companies responded well to social and environmental issues during the recession.

Americans’ enthusiasm for cause marketing also emerged from the turmoil fully intact and continues to strongly influence their purchase decisions:

• 88% say it is acceptable for companies to involve a cause or issue in their marketing;
• 85% have a more positive image of a product or company when it supports a cause they care about; and,
• 80% are likely to switch brands, similar in price and quality, to one that supports a cause.

Not only are consumers willing to switch among similar brands, they are also willing to step outside their comfort zones. When it supports a cause:

• 61% of Americans say they would be willing to try a new brand or one unfamiliar to them;
• 46% would try a generic or private-label brand; and,
• Nearly one-in-five consumers (19%) would be willing to purchase a more expensive brand.

“When price and quality are equal, we know most consumers will choose the product benefiting the cause,” explains Alison DaSilva, executive vice president at Cone. “But cause alignment can have an even bigger influence on consumer choice, pushing them to experiment with something different and unfamiliar. Cause branding is a prime opportunity for companies to extend beyond their traditional market and increase exposure to potential new consumers.”

Moms and Millennials:  Most Cause-Conscious Consumers
By all measures, moms lead the way as the demographic most amenable to cause marketing. In fact, moms virtually demand the opportunity to shop with a cause in mind. A staggering 95 percent find cause marketing acceptable (vs. 88% average), and 92 percent want to buy a product supporting a cause (vs. 81% average). They are also more likely to switch brands (93% vs. 80% average), so it is hardly surprising that moms purchased more cause-related products in the past year than any other demographic (61% vs. 41% average).

Millennials (18-24 years old) are close on moms’ heels as they also shop with an eye toward the greater good. Ninety-four percent find cause marketing acceptable (vs. 88% average) and more than half (53%) have bought a product benefiting a cause this year (vs. 41% average).

A company’s support of social or environmental issues is also likely to influence this group’s decisions outside the store, including where to work (87% vs. 69% average) and where to invest (79% vs. 59% average).

Engage Consumers Beyond the Vote
At a time when consumer voting campaigns have emerged as the cause marketing tactic du jour, a majority (61%) of consumers say they would prefer to see a company make a long-term commitment to a focused issue rather than determining themselves which issue the company supports in the short-term. This does not suggest they do not want to be engaged, however. Buying a cause-related product (81%) continues to be the leading way consumers want to support a company’s efforts, but they also seek other higher-touch opportunities, such as lending their voices through ideas or feedback (75%) and volunteerism (72%).

“Putting the charitable dollars in the hands of consumers has, no doubt, been the standout cause strategy of the last two years. But although these campaigns are notable, they are not building long-lasting brand equity,” explains DaSilva. “They are big and bold today, but in one year, or five or 10, they won’t have clearly defined what the company stands for, and it may be hard to gauge social impact. This will require greater focus and more meaningful consumer engagement beyond the click of a button.”

Dual-Role of Employees
Consumers are the primary audience for most companies’ cause branding programs, but businesses should be wary of overlooking employees as a key participant in their efforts. Sixty-nine percent of Americans consider a company’s social and environmental commitments when deciding where to work. The correlation does not end once they are employed. Employees who are involved in their company’s cause efforts are much more likely to feel a sense of pride and loyalty toward their employer:

• 93% say they are proud of their company’s values (vs. 68% for those who are not involved); and,
• 92% say they feel a strong sense of loyalty to their company (vs. 61% for those who are not involved).

Employees may translate their experiences and knowledge as participants to their role as front-line ambassadors for a company’s cause efforts. Seventy percent of consumers say a knowledgeable employee may drive their purchases or donations. And when consumers do not receive the details they need to make an informed cause-related purchase, whether through employees, on-pack messaging or other channels, 34 percent will either choose another brand or walk away.

Issues Stand Test of Time
Even as businesses face a set of complex new issues, consumers remain steadfast in their expectations of what companies should address. They continue to want companies to prioritize support of issues close to home, in local communities (46%) and in the U.S. (37%), but they are gradually recognizing the need for companies to address issues globally, as well (17%). The leading causes consumers want companies to support include:

• Economic development – 77%
• Health and disease – 77%
• Hunger – 76%
• Education – 75%
• Access to clean water – 74%
• Disaster relief – 73%
• Environment – 73%

Americans may feel some of these issues personally, but they also recognize the impact a company can have when it supports a business-aligned issue. They are equally likely to say that a company should consider supporting an issue that is important in the communities where it does business (91%), as well as one that is aligned with its business practices (91%).

“Cause branding is standing the test of time, but leadership companies must continue to innovate to ensure their programs offer an original consumer experience, tackle tough emerging issues and make bold new commitments,” says DaSilva. “Those that are most successful and meeting the competing needs of many stakeholders are aligning issues with the business for mutual benefit and integrating these efforts into a larger corporate responsibility strategy for maximum impact.”

——————————————————————————————————

About the Research:
The 2010 Cone Cause Evolution Study presents the findings of an online survey conducted July 29-30, 2010 by ORC among a demographically representative U.S. sample of 1,057 adults comprising 512 men and 545 women 18 years of age and older.  The margin of error associated with a sample of this size is ± 3%.

About Cone:
Cone LLC (www.coneinc.com) is a strategy and communications agency engaged in building brand trust.  Cone creates stakeholder loyalty and long-term relationships through the development and execution of Cause Branding, Brand Marketing, Corporate Responsibility, Nonprofit Marketing and Crisis Prevention and Management initiatives.  Cone is a part of the Omnicom Group (NYSE: OMC) (www.omnicomgroup.com).

Contact:
Sarah Kerkian
Cone
skerkian@coneinc.com
617.939.8389

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US Military’s Open Burn Pits in Afghanistan May Be Making People Sick

by Jaymi Heimbuch, San Francisco, California on 08.23.11

Science & Technology

This is the never-ending burn pit at Balad. It’s a rather crude waste disposal method (burn off anything that burns, then sell the rest in bulk to Iraqis for metal recycling), but it works well enough — except when the wind blows the smoke through the rest of the base. I lived about 300 meters away from this burn pit in q3/q4 2004, which was…sometimes unpleasant.”

J. Malcolm Garcia has written a piece on Guernica on the strange smell of burning plastic that comes from the American military base just outside of Bagram Village in Afghanistan. The military burns garbage — an average of 10 pounds of solid waste per person inlcuding “computers, motorbikes, TVs, shoes, and even human feces” — to dispose of it, but the method releases toxins that could be causing illness.

Garcia writes, “As of last year, the United States Central Command estimates that there were 114 open burn pits in Afghanistan. According to a public information officer at Bagram Airbase who asked not to be identified, there were twenty-two burn pits in Iraq as of 2010. Used since the beginning of both wars, burn pits have consumed metals, Styrofoam, human waste, electronics and even, in some cases, vehicles and body parts. Diesel and jet fuel keep the pits burning, adding their own mix of dangerous elements.”

We know of the issues of improper recycling of electronics — e-waste dumps have taught, and are teaching us, about the consequences to human health, water supplies, air quality and even soil quality of burning toxic materials such as electronics. Open burn pits with everything tossed in, well, it is clearly an unhealthy idea, and that is acknowledged by the US EPA.

“Military officials declined to comment on the decision to use open burn pits, but the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency bans open pit burning of materials that discharge toxic chemicals and whose smoke can contribute to the risk of cancer, asthma and reproductive problems. The EPA also prohibits open pit burning grass and leaves, food and petroleum products such as plastic, rubber and asphalt,” writes Garcia.

Garcia reports that there has been an uptake in respiratory diseases among US soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, and we can guess that local laborers and residents are also being affected.

While some say that this was the cheapest, easiest solution to the garbage, it certainly isn’t the smartest. One soldier says that it’s probably just too hard to get people to recycle because putting trash convoys on the road is too risky. However, we’ve seen the level of ingenuity coming out of Afghanistan when it comes to repurposing materials into something useful.

Garcia visited the area to find out more about the open pits — the reasons why, and what soldiers and officers think about the “solution” for garbage — and has a fantastic article written about it. I highly recommend reading it all the way through.

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Buying Biodegradable Bags Instead Of Standard Plastic Bags

Posted By Bob B Taylor On August 19th 2011.

Biodegradable bags are a hot subject of environmental protection. National’s Government propagandize everyone use these bags instead of normal bag; further they issue policy to forbid the using plastic without biodegradable additive.

There are numerous ways to classify the biodegradable. One of the ways is degradable condition, there are two main types: Biodegradable plastic bags and Degradable plastic bags. Bio-degradable is manufactured out of farmed items like cornstarch and additive; they’re decomposed in the aerobic condition, so they can not degrade in environment. It is not the ideal choice for the landfill in environment.

Alternatively, the biodegradable trash bags are a lot more environment friendly. It may decompose easily because they are made, almost, entirely from the natural wastes. These usually do not imperil the aquatic life since the biodegradable bags may also decompose in aquatic atmosphere. Moreover, if these are swallowed through the inhabitants of aqua, it may easily be digested owing to their natural composition. Using these bags may also save huge amount of money that it takes the municipal authorities to remove them from your sewage pipes. The assembly and subsequent use of these bags has, surprisingly, a zero net impact on the Fractional co2 of the atmosphere as these release how much carbon dioxide at the time of their decomposition consumed during their production. The sunshine weight, easy transportation and lesser price will also be one of the most substantial advantages of these bags.

There is a good news for packaging bag market is biodegradable material appeared. This is a great choice for protecting environment. Through the use of additive elements including EPI, D2W or ECM just 1 percent or 2 percent to combine into resin material, plastic bags may be degraded totally from 6 months to five years. However, the purchase price is just a tiny bit higher than normal ones with the same quality of plastic bags: durability, light weight, water resistance, printing quality, nevertheless it bring to persistent development for economic and also the life. There are a lot of main reasons why using eco-friendly products makes good business sense. The most importance thing is that benefit moves along with sustainability and morality of economic. It is recommended for business owner to lessen their foot print on the planet.

http://fineartamerica.com/featured/shopping-bags-debra-hurd.html

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Plastic: It’s what’s for dinner

Conservation of mass often applies to college-level physics problems: in a closed system, mass can neither be created nor destroyed. In the case of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch – a gigantic section of the ocean littered with an unusually high amount of man-made trash — the system is clearly not closed. Yet conservation of mass is almost precisely what we see, both in the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans: more than 20 years of waste plastic studies in these oceans have demonstrated that the garbage patches are neither growing in size nor shrinking. They have conserved their mass. While plastic production rates have skyrocketed, as well as human consumption of plastic-contained goods, the plastic masses in these oceanic gyres (very large circular current patterns spanning thousands of miles) are incontrovertibly the same now as they were in the 1980s.

Interesting. If the rate at which plastic enters the patch has increased while the total mass of the patch has remained constant, then there must have been a corresponding increase in the rate at which plastic leaves the patch, to balance. Some scientists have hypothesized that the depths of the oceans act as plastic “sinks” from which waste never returns. If this were true, huge collections of settled ocean plastic debris should be established across the world. But for all their efforts, scientists have not been able to locate such sinks. With no evidence to support the ocean sink hypothesis, researchers have been looking for alternative answers for decades. What they have recently found may surprise you.

In a recent article appearing in Nature News, marine chemist Tracy Mincer and colleagues at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) reported the observation of oceanic bacteria actively consuming bits of plastic recovered from ocean gyres. At a glance, their result are not so shocking. After all, we have long known that microbial communities can (slowly) degrade plastic in landfills, over many years. However, it had been previously thought that the ocean gyres were too nutrient-poor to sustain substantial bacterial colonies. Therefore, the group’s findings help shed light on what has been a rather intriguing puzzle to scientists.

Of course, all scientists know that by answering one question, hundreds more arise. Most importantly, currently no one knows what chemical compounds microbes degrade plastic into. They could be biologically benign compounds, or they could be toxic. Concentrated breakdown of plastic into toxic compounds in ocean gyre masses, or landfills, could spell eventual disaster for local ecological communities. Through biological magnification, toxins can be stored inside animals’ bodies. As prey is consumed at higher and higher levels up the food web, the largest predators end up with the highest concentrations of toxins – think the bald eagle and DDT. Then multiply the issue by the size of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, which is swirling away inside the largest ecosystem on the planet.

Whatever scientists determine about the toxicity of the microbial degradation products of plastic, the rest of the conserved mass of floating plastic will still be there. If we continue our current plastic consumption as societies, then billions of micron-sized particles of human trash will continue to float in our oceans for decades or centuries, just flinking along while fish, whales, and seabirds consume them for dinner. Of course, we can also clearly see that preventative measures would have a profound effect here: if we actively reduce the mass of plastic entering the system while microbial degradation activity remains high, then the total mass of plastic in the oceanic gyres will also decrease. In other words, your actions today directly contribute to the health of our oceans in the future.

I urge you to think about consumption habits that you can change, like carrying a reusable water bottle instead of purchasing bottled water. I never go anywhere without my half-liter Nalgene. Also, you will be happy to know that the I Heart Tap Water campaign is well underway here at UC Berkeley. You can find campus water bottle filling stations on a Google map here.

It’s your choice. You can either let ocean microbes struggle to clean up our oceans for us, or you can actively prevent the contamination of our water with plastic debris by choosing to reduce your plastic consumption and recycling as much as possible.

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“McClellan Mountain Spring Water utilizes PET plastic bottles with a specially formulated additive that makes the bottle 100% biodegradable. This ENSO additive allows the bottles to maintain the same physical properties (shelf life, texture, clarity, appearance, etc) as traditional PET plastic bottles, however once these bottles are placed in a landfill , ocean, stream or other outdoor location, the bottle starts to breakdown in 250 days. At the end of 5 years, the biodegradable bottle returns to the environment a biogases and inert humus. In landfill disposal, our bottles promote the use of biogases, for use in creating clean energy.”

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