Don't blame plastics, vendors say; retailers urged to fight anti-plastic packaging laws

Discount Store News, Oct 16, 1989 by Arthur Markowitz

Don't Blame Plastics, Vendors Say

NEWTON, Mass. - Retailers are being urged to join the battle to defeat legislation that would restrict or eliminate the use of plastic bags and packaging.

The call was sounded by representatives from several packaging and environmental organizations and a leading bag maker who spoke at a symposium held here last month.

A growing number of state and local legislatures have adopted or are considering antiplastic packaging laws. The speakers warned that these measures won't materially help the environment but will sharply increase retailers' costs.

The speakers assailed legislative and public relations efforts that focus on plastics as the prime environmental culprit and promote the use of material that degrades - which is scientifically questionable - as the solution to the nation's waste problems.

Researchers have dug up old landfills and found paper bags and food wastes intact and unchanged, speakers noted.

Equitable Bag Co., the leading manufacturer of paper and plastic packaging for general merchandise retailers, sponsored the conference, "Packaging Legislation - Its Impact on the Retailer," as a regional meeting for New England-based chains. Similar forums are to be held in other regions.

The company also plans to make available a one-hour videotape of the symposium, so that retailers can inform their employees about the relationship of plastic packaging to the waste disposal problem.

Equitable Bag president Robert Krissel told the retailers attending the symposium they have legal responsibilities when they use a product that claims to be degradable. "Get the supplier to provide a warranty or letter of identification to prevent lawsuits," he said.

Jeanne Wirka, a representative of the Environmental Action Foundation, criticized the idea that degradability was the answer to the problem of solid waste. She said that source reduction - using less products that enter the waste stream - and recycling were the "truer answers."

She noted that landfills today are designed as sterile environments that aren't conducive to degradation of plastic or paper because they don't contain microorganisms that would break up the bags or packaging material. "There's no reason to make biodegradable plastics if it goes into a landfill where nothing happens," she said.

"The push for biodegradable products hurts the growing trend of recycling as consumers think such bags and packaging doesn't hurt the environment and they don't have to recycle or produce less solid waste," she added.

Richard B. Thornburg, director, government relations, Flexible Packagings Association, provided an update and overview of federal and state legislation. He noted that the FPA has been able to defeat or modify bills in a number of states that would have banned or restricted retailers' use of plastic bags.

The pressure for such laws, however, will grow in the next two to three years as states run out of landfill space that meets the standards of the Environmental Protection Agency, he warned.

Banning plastics and encouraging recycling of other materials are "the most popular and politically acceptable" measures because "no one wants an incinerator or landfill in their backyard," Thornburg said.

Plastic is the most cost-effective material for bags and if it is banned or restricted, retailers are bound to face considerably higher costs for other materials, Thornburg said.

"Retailers need to organize and have their trade groups get involved in fighting restrictive legislation. The packaging association can't do the job alone," he said.

Rodney W. Lowman, vice president, The Council of Solid Waste Solutions, urged retailing executives to become personally involved in environmental matters.

The public is concerned about the environment, he said. "The Clean Air Act and other environmental measures show that the Bush administration got the signal from the public and so should businessmen."

Environmental groups have become more sophisticated in their endeavors. Activists once struggled outside the system but now they are often part of the infrastructure, working in the government bureaucracy.

C. Charles Pearl, Equitable Bag's technical vp and chairman of the Plastic Bag Association Industry Issue Committee, said plastic bags play a major role in source reduction. "Plastic bags take up about 10 percent of the space of paper bags so they use less landfill space."

Pearl attributed the legislative attack on plastic bags to politics. "When paper bag manufacturers lost business to plastic bags, they did a big PR job and created the issue of biodegradable packaging for political reasons."

"Equitable is testing biodegradable plastic bags using corn additives from various suppliers and so far none have passed independent laboratory test," he noted. "We have tested three different grades of photodegradable plastic bags and think that two will pass the requirements [of a law just enacted in Florida]."

Krissel said that Equitable would supply retailers with plastic bags that contain the corn starch additive but wouldn't put any claim of biodegradability on such products. He suggested that retailers "put environmental messages on bags that you are comfortable with and that are truthful."