| Author (Person) | Carstens, Karen |
|---|---|
| Series Title | European Voice |
| Series Details | Vol.9, No.31, 25.9.03, p20 |
| Publication Date | 25/09/2003 |
| Content Type | News |
|
Date:25/09/03 By Karen Carstens "I JUST want to say one word to you, Benjamin, one word - plastics." A bewildered young American, armed with a bachelor's degree and little else, was confronted with this hilarious career advice by one of his parents' middle-aged friends in Mike Nichols' seminal 1967 film The Graduate. But the actor Dustin Hoffman, who played the young graduate in question, was more taken with the charms of a seductive suburban housewife named Mrs Robinson, and their steamy affair quickly banished all further thoughts of plastics. The first man-made plastics were invented in the 1860s, and by the 1950s they were well on their way to becoming indispensable to modern life. Today, plastics play an important role in cutting-edge technologies in space exploration, bullet-proof vests and prosthetic limbs, as well as in everyday products such as beverage containers, medical devices and automobiles. Yet the plastics reference in The Graduate - arguably as well known as Benjamin Braddock's "Mrs. Robinson, you're trying to seduce me" line - came during the waning years of a Disneyesque postwar era dominated by an unerring belief that things could only get better. Despite the Cold War and Vietnam, it was an optimistic time of relative peace and prosperity, and of a global economic boom. At the same time, Rachel Carson's bestselling Silent Spring was a precursor of movements such as Greenpeace which burst onto the global political scene in the 1970s. Fast-forward to the 1990s and enter "bioplastics", which have been heralded as a greener alternative to replace some of their chemical-based counterparts. Increasingly developed over the past decade, they are created via bio-processes, known as "white biotechnology" that can also be used to produce antibiotics, vitamins, detergents and textile fibres. Instead of petroleum, biorenewable materials such as starch from corn, or whey from cheese-making - or even leftover food (see facing page) - can be used to make biodegradable plastics. While traditional, petroleum-based plastics still play a major part in making our lives easier and better, environmentalists claim some of them can also be harmful to our health. Researchers have found some evidence to support this. "Computers are emitting chemicals from plastics or materials that release substances about which we know nothing," says Dimitrius Kotzias, director of a group at the EU's Joint Research Centre (JRC) in Ispra, Italy, that has just conducted a groundbreaking study on indoor air pollution. The main culprit in their findings, published on Monday (22 September), was smoke from tobacco products. But the JRC study also found that volatile chemicals come off carpets, cleaning agents, plastics, modern building materials, computers and office equipment. Then there is PVC: although toymakers have been using polyvinyl chloride to make baby toys for half a century, many were pulled off store shelves in the late 1990s, due to consumer fears about the dangers of such vinyl products as bleaching chemicals. Yet phasing PVCs out of medical equipment could prove catastrophic, health experts warn, as there are no ready substitutes that provide the flexibility, hygienic qualities and long history of safe use with patients. These ongoing debates aside, bioplastics could help alleviate at least some green concerns. In the US, where the promise of a new "bio-based economy" has spurred a long-term strategy and technology road-map to 2020, companies already produce bio-materials for use in soft-drink cups, bedding and clothing. Major investments are also being made in bio-fuels based on corn and other crops. But "white biotechnology" has yet to hit Europe. To help it along, a group of companies that convened last April in Lyon for a conference dubbed "BioVision" called on the EU to back industrial biotechnology. "Now the technology has arrived and it has a lot to offer," said Steen Riisgard, head of Danish firm Novozymes A/S, the world's largest manufacturer of industrial enzymes. The companies presented studies to show that the use of micro-organisms such as moulds, bacteria and enzymes in industrial production can help cut back on the consumption of water, energy and raw materials. Feike Sijbesma, chairman of EuropaBio and a member of the board of Dutch chemicals group DSM, said white biotechnology can make both environmental and economic sense. "When people talk about using environmental technologies, they think it will cost more. It can also be quite beneficial for economic reasons," he said. EuropaBio, which hosted the BioVision event, estimates white biotechnology could account for 10-20% of European chemical production by 2010, up from 5%, and save €11-22 billion through lower production costs. Producing vitamin B2 using enzymes rather than complex chemical synthesis, for example, has cut production costs by 40%. Firms want the European Commission to come up with a regulatory framework, making it possible and attractive to exploit white biotechnology. "White biotechnology can reallychange industrial processes by making them more environmentally friendly," said Kirsten Staer, public affairs director at Novozymes A/S. "The US is further ahead with its own government-funded strategy on bio-fuels, and it is further along in the bio-plastics field," she added. "We're trying to push for something like that [at EU level]." Perhaps Benjamin Braddock should have thought twice at that party Article considers new ways of producing plastics that are better for the environment and human health. |
|
| Related Links |
|
| Subject Categories | Business and Industry, Environment |
