MUNDOMATERIAL

This post is a follow up of A month without plastic. Since I wrote that, Chris Jeavans has been doing quite well for herself. She has learned some of the dynamics of the downsizing movement, which promotes reduction of all consumed items, and she is applying some of its rules. An example of a total-downsizer is this blog: No impact man. In this case plastic is not the only suspect and this New Yorker tries to reduce his enviromental impact to zero. Challenging, to say the least. Some of the key rules of downsizers are as follows: be aware of the impact of what you consumed be determined measure your progress tell others how to do it All these steps taking by downsizers look very much like those taken by a person on diet, food diet I mean. Chris Jeavans has analysed new product types, like shoes, meat packaging and toiletries. But more importantly, she has found a lot of friends. As it turns out, she is not the first doing this at all. There are quite a few bloggers out there that are... 
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In March 2008 the European Commission adopted Regulation EC 282/2008, setting out the requirements for recycled plastics to be used in food contact applications. The aim of the regulation is to level the field accross Europe, since up to now the legal status of recycled plastics varied from country to country. Also, the lack of specific legislation made it more difficult for recycled plastics to compete with virgin polymers in this type of end market. The EC is just being consequent with what is already established in Directive 94/62/EC, promoting the recycling of packaging waste. However, the recent regulation covers not only food packaging, but also cutlery, dishes, processing machines, containers, etc. Only plastics already used in food contact applications, or complying with food contact requirements, are covered by the Directive. Excluded from it are the following: materials obtained by chemical recycling, which are covered instead by Directive 2002/72/EC on monomers and additives recycled... 
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I’m totally fascinated by a new experiment being done by a BBC reporter, Chris Jeavans: A month without plastic. As the title of her already popular blog suggests, she is going to go without plastic for a whole month. The rules of her experiment are simple: She must not buy or consumed new plastic for a month and she can keep using whatever she had before. To prepare for her experiment and fully realised of its impact, she first collected all the new plastic she consumed for a month. If you want to see a video of it – which I totally recommend – follow this link, with WRAP‘s expert Paul Davidson. He explains to her what plastic is used in each product, how it can be recycled and some of the easy alternatives to reduce plastic usage. To start with, she is getting a huge response in the media and creating a very healthy debate on how we use plastic. Just to see all the plastic an average person uses in a month can be quite a shock to some people. It has to be said... 
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I’ve found this video, which I think exemplifies quite graphically why a part of the population is so upset about plastic. It’s the 2007 Winner of Friends of the Earth’s Best One-minute green film award and it was directed by Ulla Jacobsen (Denmark). Go to YouTube’s Friend’s of the Earth page to watch more interesting short films or maybe try to redeem plastic! Absurd and redundant packaging like the one showed in the film it’s just a waste of material. It is also a screen that sometimes don’t allow people the useful applications of plastic. Those in you in the business of packaging, please, please, be sensible. AKPC_IDS += "1730,"; 
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