From The Telegraph, England, September 18, 2016

Plastic crockery and cutlery is to be banned in France unless it is made from biologically sourced materials.

The law comes into force in 2020. It is part of a French environmental initiative called the Energy Transition for Green Growth, part of a package aimed at tackling climate change.

But, the Independent reported, the move faces a challenge from Pack2Go Europe, a Brussels-based organisation representing European packaging manufacturers.

“We are urging the European Commission to do the right thing and to take legal action against France for infringing European law,” said Eamonn Bates, secretary general of Pack2go Europe.

He said there was no proof that biologically sourced material was any more environmentally beneficial.

Leonardo DiCaprio warns about climate change in emotional Oscars speech after winning Best Actor Play! 01:04

Mr Bates said the ban could make the litter problem worse because consumers would believe that packaging left in the countryside would be biodegradable.

The move against disposable cutlery and crockery is part of a growing trend to outlaw the use of plastic in several parts of the world.

Karnataka in India has banned the use of plastic across the entire state. San Francisco banned plastic shopping bags in 2007 and plastic water bottles on public properties in 2014. In Britain customers must pay 5p for each plastic bag.

Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/09/17/france-bans-the-use-of-plastic-crockery-and-cutlery-to-aid-battl/

See also: http://www.FrackCheckWV.net

From Grist.com, September 15, 2015

Product design: Plastic’s trash, so use something else

Plastic is bad. Like, really, gigantically, pervasively bad for the environment. Besides polluting the deep blue in mind-boggling quantities, plastic waste poisons, throttles, and traps legions of marine life every year.

The easy answer would be to stop using plastics entirely. But since some among us evidently can’t live without plastics, some designers have taken to crafting products that conform to our needs. Read: seaweed-based packaging, chairs made of recycled trash, or compostable six-pack rings.

You read right. This highly specific boozer cruiser has been co-opted by the Saltwater Brewery in Florida, which uses six-pack rings made from by-products of the beer brewing process, namely, barley and wheat. They are biodegradable, so even if they end up in the ocean, they won’t bother marine life too much – and can even be eaten by them.

Source: http://grist.org/sponsored/5-awesome-design-tweaks-that-help-the-planet/

See also: http://www.FrackCheckWV.net

We don’t need new plastic production, even if it does lead to the sacred job. We need to phase OUT plastic production, finding ways to either eliminate (as in microbeads in cosmetics) or replace (as in food packaging) plastic use.

Probably there are some uses which are very difficult to eliminate–but if we were using 5% of what we are now, instead of ramping up as the article projects, it wouldn’t be near as big a problem.

Creating even more plastic is an indication that, contrary to previous scientific opinion, homo sapiens is not an intelligent species.

Mary Wildfire, Spencer, WV