Back in July, when I launched into the Plastic-Free July task, I placed certainly how difficult it clearly is to avoid single-use plastic, particularly in packaging. Even even though I almost in no way purchase prepared ingredients of any type, I could not get through a grocery buying revel in without bringing domestic extra of the stuff?A bag of popcorn, a carton of eggs, a gallon of milk. Even packing containers that were not made of plastic, like a cardboard box of tea bags or a tin of ginger mints, came in a plastic wrapper.
However, the maximum absurd, ironic use of plastic packaging I located in the direction of that month end up some thing I noticed on a trip to the H-Mart. Next to the checkout changed right into a show of youngsters' plastic toys and dishes with labels boasting that they have been made of environmentally friendly sugar cane bagasse. Now, bioplastics like those have troubles of their very very own, as this submit on Columbia University's
However, as bioplastics go, plastic made from sugar cane bagasse is better than most. Bagasse is a by-product of sugar production that would just go to waste normally, so it's not using up valuable cropland. And it can be made about as cheaply as petroleum-based plastic, according to the MIT Technology Review. So, that's good, right?
But now here's the catch. All these eco-friendly, plant-based plastic items come packaged in...plastic. Good old-fashioned petroleum-based plastic.
I suppose the absurdity of bioplastic packaged in petroleum plastic is probably some sort of metaphor to do with environmentalism or society or life itself, but unfortunately, I'm not feeling sharp enough at the moment to figure out just what it is. The only moral I can spot in the story is that greenwashing is everywhere, and you need to keep a sharp eye out for it. Pretty much any product can slap some kind of a green claim on its label, so if you want to buy truly sustainable products, you need to look beyond the label and take a hard look at the products themselves, including how they're packaged.
Or maybe it's just that a Korean supermarket isn't necessarily the best place to go looking for them.
