Litter packaging plastics

The qualities of plastics can also be disadvantageous. Their high durability, often used as a sales argument, becomes a problem in applications where the service life is short, such as packaging. Plastics packaging waste makes up a considerable and very visible share of municipal solid waste (MSW) and litter. 

Interest in environmentally degradable polymers began more than thirty years ago, when it was first recognized that the commonly used commodity packaging plastics such as polyolefins, poly(vinyl chloride, polystyrene, and poly(ethylene terephthalate) were accumulating in the environments in which they were discarded, after use. Since these polymers were developed for their resistance properties, it should not have been surprising that they were recalcitrant in landfills and as litter when disposed of in a negligent manner. 

Wear nitrile rubber gloves, laboratory coat, and self-contained breathing apparatus. Cover the spill with a 1 1 1 mixture by weight of sodium carbonate, clay cat litter (calcium bentonite), and sand. When all of the liquid has been absorbed, scoop the mixture into a plastic pail or other wide-mouth container and place in the fume hood. If local regulations permit, allow the acetone vapor to evaporate for several days until no odor remains. The spill mix can then be discarded with normal refuse.14,15 Otherwise, package and label for disposal by burning.15,16... 

Realistic uses for Degradable Plastics include those applications where materials are used outdoors for a limited time only and it is not economically desirable to collect the residual materials after use. Examples are agricultural mulch, films and cordage, twine, etc. Another application is that of packaging which is stored and used indoors and discarded outdoors, in other words litter for which manual collection is not practicable. 

It is a fact that actinic deterioration of Degradable Plastic films will, in due course, lead to the crumbling of them into fine particles. Such disintegration obviates the plastics litter problem and provides the possibility of a solution to the agricultural plastics residue situation. There is evidence in this paper and elsewhere ( ) that there are commercially viable formulations with which packaging (and related) plastics can be made to have controlled, short embrittlement times outdoors but no indoor stability problems. 

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