City living is eco

I've been helping out the caretaker in our apartment building. He digs through the rubbish looking for cardboard and glass, and finally the body corporate has asked everyone to separate those and he will collect. Unfortunately this is purely a cost driven exercise for this bloke, so he isn't interested in anything else of limited value, but I was thinking of starting a compost heap (a friend of mine is organising a worm one in her block). This got me to thinking how it's so much easier to co-operate when you live in close quarters... city living can be eco sometimes. All we need is lift sharing or car sharing and then we're sorted. Hmmm..

Biodegradable is not always good

Biodegradable plastics sound good for the environment, right? You've heard how many years plastics hang around for in the landfills ... Technically yes, but only if you keep them out of your rubbish bins and plastic recycling because if these biodegradable plastics are mixed with regular plastic recycling they can ruin the integrity of the recycled products (i.e. the products would be weakened). This in turn will cause people to move away from recycled plastic products, which is not good for the recycling industry. Not only that but landfills 'mummify' our trash, so degrading takes centuries, not years.

So, what can we do about it - not too sure (avoid Tiger Brands bread or bury the bags in your garden?). This press release from SAPRO on biodegradable plastics isn't written for the layman. Their conclusion seems to be unsure and instead suggest reduction of packaging is a better way to go (I agree).