Recycling Woes
A FAILED ATTEMPT by McDonalds in the USA to introduce a recycling scheme for its polystyrene packaging illustrates the difficulties of cutting down the waste stream — and how recycling schemes are very much a patch-up job. In the face of pressure from environmentalists, McDonalds started a pilot recycling scheme for the polystyrene packages, billions of which have ended up in landfills. Its polystyrene suppliers had agreed to invest $US16 million in seven recycling plants, which would turn the used packages into plastic resin pellets, which in turn would become everything from video cassettes to plastic flower pots to garbage baskets. However environmental groups opposed the venture on the grounds that the ground up containers would not be recycled into new spoons, cups and plates (forbidden on health grounds by the US Food and Drug Administration). At best the recycling plans would transform one percent of America’s plastic litter into "permanent" plastic furnishings and fixtures. Source: Forbes
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Forest and Bird, Volume 22, Issue 1, 1 February 1991, Page 6
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158Recycling Woes Forest and Bird, Volume 22, Issue 1, 1 February 1991, Page 6
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