ECO2 — Environmental Boogaloo
ECO2 Plastics makes me want to dance–although this was after it made me want to sob. I’ll get to the latter later. The former is why I’ve titled this post “Environmental Boogaloo”. Boogaloo (bugalu) is a type of Latin dance and music and, after speaking with the good folks at ECO2 Plastics, I want to dance!
Why I Wanted to Sob
In getting info for this article I found out what ECO2 CEO Rod Rougelot calls “recycling’s dirty little secret.” During the process of recycling plastic, tons of water is wasted during cleaning. This water is not your ordinary run-of-the-watermill water, however. A variety of harmful acids and detergents are added to the water to clean the contaminants, glue, and labels off the plastic. Deflocculants are then added to pull the solids out of the wastewater. Finally, (and this is a very general explanation of the process) the wastewater is treated to balance the pH level of the water. This is done through the use of more chemicals. End result: one, sanitized plastic ready to be recycled; two, a cocktail of harmful, detergents, chemicals, acids, bases, deflocculants, and contaminants headed down the drain and back into our fresh water supply (approximately 40 million gallons per year to be–approximately–exact). When I verbalized my feelings of being hoodwinked, Rougelot quickly pointed out that, although a dirty, wasteful process, it is still better than creating plastic from scratch. Thanks for the verbal tissue Rod. Goodbye, for now, tears!
ECO2 to the Rescue!
After years in the recycling biz, building about a half-dozen water-based recycling plants, ECO2 founder Gary DeLaurentiis thought there had to be a better way. After all, recycling is for the good of the planet, so there had to be a “green” way to do a “green” thing (while saving and earning some “green” in the meantime). That’s when DeLaurentiis, along with Honeywell, co-invented a patent which uses a biodegradable organic solvent made of sugar beets and corn (in conjunction with liquid CO2) to decontaminate the recycled plastic. In the entire process (get ready to boogaloo), no water or harmful chemicals are used, and the liquid CO2 is distilled and used over and over again, as is the solvent. Now that’s the type of environmental impact that I always imagined recycling to have. And, make no mistake, without having to use immense amounts of water, chemicals and whatever else, ECO2 saves a good amount of money in the process, thus making it a solid business model able to compete in the world wide market.
With one plant in the San Francisco area, and more in the works, ECO2 is leading a recycling revolution. Rougelot believes this should “change plastic recycling all over the world.” I am inclined to agree. Let’s hope he’s right.
With a passionate DeLaurentiis and his hardworking supporting cast pushing ECO2 into the mainstream—there’s no reason to believe otherwise…so keep dancing!
A Dose of Irony
More and more people all over the world are drinking bottled water because of the real and imagined threats of tap water. Yet, the process of creating the plastic for the water bottles, along with the old (read: current, or non-ECO2) way of recycling are two of the leading contributors that make our drinking water less drinkable…
sip on that.
Ordinary recycled plastic is not degradable and will lie around in the environment for hundreds of years.
Oxo-biodegradable plastic, complying with American Standard 6954 is not expensive, and contains an additive which makes it degrade, then totally biodegrade on land or sea, in whatever time is required, leaving no fragments or harmful residues. It is made from a by-product of oil refining which would otherwise be wasted, so nobody is importing oil to make it.
Plastics made from crops are at least 400% more expensive, they are not strong enough, and they emit methane (a serious greenhouse gas) in landfill. It is wrong to use land to grow plastic and to drive up the cost of food for the poorest people.
What cannot be said enough, is that Reduce is way more important than recycling. We have to stop buying garbage. A product comes packed in plastic? just don’t buy it. It will cut a lot of junk food from your diet. Bring your own bags (for groceries and produce) to the store. Simply stop carrying branded plastic bags around. You are not being paid for the free advertising, and end up being the one to blame for the waste and the pollution. The plastic industry had its chance and blew it by calling toxic waste “disposable” and disguising it with the recycling symbol. Plastic is not disposable, and if reprocessed it ends up being downcycled into products meant to eventually go to landfills.
Yes, reduce is the best! After that reuse, then recycle. And yes, recycling does use resources (including water) but a LOT less than using virgin raw materials. All the plastic reclaimers in the US reclaim and reuse their water (they can’t afford not to). It is an urban myth that plastics must be downcycled. A PET water bottle can (and is) turned back into PET water bottles—not all of them… many PET bottles are turned into fiber (polyester fiber) and used to make products that would have required virgin resources (e.g., sleeping bag fiberfill, ski jacket fiberfill, carpet).
Oxy-biodegradable plastic is a SHAM. Why put all the energy into making plastic only to have it break apart when your done with it? It is far better to recycle it!!!