Don't buy it: Plant-based plastic

I was just on the skytrain coming back to the office from the dentist and I noticed an ad on the train for Coca-Cola’s new packaging – made from 30% plant-based materials – and I’ve been stewing about it ever sense. This “biodegradable packaging” movement is nothing short of the worst form of greenwashing. In an era when we should cutting back , these companies are simply telling us it’s okay to keep consuming disposable (and in this case completely non-nutritional) junk, but we just have to change what we consume.

What’s the problem with plant-based plastic? First of all – the same energy-heavy processes used to make all packaging products are used to make corn-plastic products – if not more. According to the researchers at the link above, some approaches to making bio-plastic consume even more fossil resources than most petrochemical manufacturing routes. That means plant-based platics are contributing the climate change even more than petrochemical based plastics are. (I do recognize that some companies claim that their manufactured “green plastic” bottles are carbon neutral – but it’s just not possible folks. There is no carbon neutrality when it comes to large-scale manufacturing).

Secondly, according to Bill McKibben in Eaarth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet, biofuels are a major contributor to world food scarcity as land that would otherwise be used for food crops is used for fuel crops. Now plastic crops too? Are we really living in a world where we can give food growing land over to disposable consumer packaging? Really? Not to mention that new crop lands are created when forests and savannahs are cut back – creating further warming as we love our carbon-sucking trees.

Thirdly, there is nothing ecological about a company like “Green Planet Bottling” who suggests that bottled water is even a remotely environmental choice.

Honestly, in this era of rapid climate destabilization, the last thing we need is more consumer junk packaged as “earth-friendly”. When are we going to get it? The only way to cut our impact is to cut our consumption. Don’t let those corporations greenwash you!