And Man Created Plastic

By Tricia Cacho and Charito Chua

Beat: Business
Category: Unpublished
Type: News Feature

"And man created the plastic bag..and soon the earth was covered with plastic bags and aluminum cans and paper plates and disposable bottles and there was nowhere to sit down or walk, and Man shook his head and cried: "Look at this Godawful mess." -Art Buchwald

The eco-friendly product or packaging is the new business trend for the year 2010. It is time for the business world to not just think about the global economy, but to also ponder upon the best interests in terms of the global environment. More and more companies are using biodegradable packaging in order to do their part and encourage consumers to also do their role for Mother Earth; to reuse, reduce and recycle.

One of the pioneers of this trend, SM Supermalls, turned to using biodegradable plastic bags in their Department Stores and Supermarkets in 2008. And ever since then, more and more companies are utilizing biodegradable plastic bags for packaging their products. However, this does not necessarily mean these companies have the desire to make the world a greener place. Using eco-friendly packaging is one way to simply attract customers and keep up with the competition in the business world. "Some companies are actually doing it just because SM is doing it. They don't really understand how it is biodegradable," said Mr. John Clifford Tan, Executive Vice President of JTA Packaging Corp, a large national provider of plastic and polyester bags.

He shared to us that most companies do not understand that the biodegradable plastic bags are not more environment-friendly than the usual plastic bags being used before. Apparently, the only difference between the two plastic bags is the added material for the biodegradable plastics to make it faster to decompose. This particular additive to the biodegradable plastics creates the effect that makes the plastics easier to deteriorate more easily than ordinary plastic, with it having a life span of six months compared to the 100 - year life span of nonbiodegradable ones. This is what makes majority of the society believe that such kind of plastics make it healthier for our environment. However, this makes the plastic more brittle, making it easier to be destroyed, therefore less chances to be used. "If the normal plastic bags were only taught to be properly used and disposed, everyone would realize that it's even more eco-friendly than the biodegradable ones. Consumers should use these bags more than once, which make it more recyclable than the biodegradable plastics since it last longer," shared Mr. Tan.

Aside from the fact that these supposedly eco-friendly plastics are not eco-friendly after all, it does not actually benefit the company with regards to its cost production. It was also explained that biodegradables actually costs 12 percent more than the normal plastic bags used before, due to the additive to make it faster to decompose in land. Melbert Villanueva, assistant store manager of SM Supermakret stated in defense, "This additional cost does not affect the customers, but instead shouldered by the company itself."

Plastic, whether biodegradable or not, does not have a good effect to our environment. The 'biodegradable' plastics could only lessen the guilt that the shoppers might have, but it return it could make them think that it is tolerable to shop for more things from such stores that are now using 'eco-friendly' plastic bags. It is time that consumers should also stop and look at everything else around in their house and realize that majority of our products today are also made of plastic. As how Mr. Tan explained, "I don't get why everyone is attacking just the plastic bags, when actually, everything is already made out of plastic. The TV frames, PSP's, even the cellphones are made out of plastic. Why aren't they doing anything to prevent these kinds of products to destroy the world?" Not only are the plastic bags pose the only dangerous threat to the environment - it is basically all plastic products.

So before you leave a store with a biodegradable plastic bag in your hands, imagine if God were to take a look of what is inside your bag. Would He evaluate man's creation and say, "And it was good"?