- Nestle Prepared Foods Company is recalling 879,565 pounds of frozen Lean Cuisine chicken meals that may contain small pieces of hard blue plastic. Yum, yum!
- Command Packaging, a leading U.S. manufacturer of plastic carry bags for retail stores and restaurants, announced it has been officially licensed by the California State Department of Conservation as an approved plastic film and bag recycling center. CEO Pete Grande: "Compared to all other packaging, these recyclables have the lowest carbon footprint, use less energy, reduced raw material and transportation costs." Seriously? Lowest carbon footprint campared to all other packaging? How about a step in the right direction towards responsible manufacturing?
- The U.S. Public Interest Research Group is urging parents to avoid buying soft plastic toys this holiday season because of a risk that the toys may contain toxic chemicals. Toys containing the chemicals, called phthalates, can no longer be manufactured or imported after February 2009, according to a product safety law that passed Congress over the summer. But U.S. PIRG says the Consumer Product Safety Commission is allowing the toy industry to circumvent the law. The agency wrote a letter last week telling manufacturers they can still sell their existing stocks of phthalate-containing toys even after the ban takes effect in February. Happy Holidays!
- Looks like Toronto is examining a bag fee similar to the one Mayor Bloomberg has proposed in NYC. The 5-cent fee proposal is an alternative to a proposal requiring a 10-cent discount for refusing plastic bags, which failed.
- And across the pond, four of UK's leading supermarket chains say they aim to halve the number of plastic bags distributed to customers by next spring. Last year the supermarkets agreed to voluntary annual 25% cuts in bag use in order to head off plastic bag charges. Bags are placed below the counter and customers are asked if they really want them. The result? One of the company heads says it is cheaper to not hand out the bags, and therefore is a good business decision.
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Plastic In The News
Here are a few recent news articles about...you guessed it.
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2 comments:
We went with European or American toys last year due to the China paint scare. Montgomery School house in the US and Haba in Europe are two really good companies. Cloth and wood, dude.
We are staying with that...we are getting more books for Arthur. He loves them and has played with them and sat for short story times since birth, really, but more and more as a toddler he just picks them up and looks at them for a while or brings them to us to read. He will be getting the Uncle Goose wood block set made in Grand Rapids this Christmas, in addition to books.
I really hope the 5 cent thing goes through here. It is the prefect solution. It encourages people to bring their cloth bags, but still allows for the occasional necessary plastic bag for people buying raw meat or something of the sort. I also like that the fee will go towards the cost of recycling the bags that do go out and come back...a self-supporting system.
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