I may be barking up, or rather hugging, the wrong tree but I wouldn’t be surprised were the bioplastics industry to be looking to sever its no longer so comfortable links with the environmentalist lobby.
Having fuelled the booster rocket that first propelled it into contention with JR and his ilk, what seemed like a shared outlook has blurred into the cranky hair-splitting of definitions. Even what’s meant by the term ‘natural’ has lately been queried in some of the more right-on green circles.
The link between the two camps should be a match made in heaven. Yet one moment the biodegradable compostables are at odds with the renewable bio-based drop-ins; the next they’re up in arms against oxo-degradables.
It’s like the chaotic aftermath of the Russian revolution. Consumers are confused. Brand owners are hanging back. Retailers are backing whichever horse their competition isn’t. The waste recovery stream is sitting on its hands. No wonder when (with apologies to George Orwell) all biopolymers are green, but some are more green than others.
Unless there’s an unknown mother lode lurking under the rapidly melting polar ice-cap, or else on board a passing asteroid that we could tether and mine, black gold and its by-products are destined to be written off as ancient history sooner or later. Estimates vary as to how long stocks of oil may last, but another 50 years seems to be the current consensus.
One enduring legacy, however, will be to push us towards a more mindful means of harvesting what’s on or in the ground without necessarily having it pulled from under our feet. A feedstock that can be infinitely farmed or a well that can be plumbed until it runs dry: they’re respectively a means to an end or else an end full-stop. Instead of waiting for the inevitable to be forced upon us it’s an outcome we should be positively accelerating.
So rather than squabbling amongst themselves as to whether it’s more sustainable to grow corn for fuel or food (and disregarding that one-third of all of the latter produced annually for human consumption is either lost or wasted for the want of rudimentary modern agricultural practice, or the judicious application of some basic packaging of any hue) the petro-chemical industry is making a better fist of advancing progress than the green lobby.
The reasons have little to do with saving the planet but because the oil’s running out. They want to stay in business, and there’s enough arable land to grow both and turn a profit.
Aspiring for the best in the best of all possible worlds is wholly commendable. If it enriches us financially as well as environmentally then what colours the end-result is superficial.
