Complications During
Production
(Environmental Impacts,
Worker Safety)
- A 1986 EPA report on solid waste named the polystyrene manufacturing
process as the 5th largest creator of hazardous waste. - The international trade agreement — Montreal Protocol — decided to phase-out
ozone depleting CFCs by the year 2000. - CFCs and HCFCs are the same? —
EPA Office of Air and Radiation: “Chemicals such as HCFC-22 contain
hydrogen….Thus, HCFC-22 is not technically a CFC.”
***The industry succeeded
in legally changing the name of CFC-22, as had they called it for a half-century,
and renamed it (the ‘environmentally friendly’) “HCFC-22.”
Consumer Health Problems: ItÂ’s
Everywhere!
(Public Contamination, Feeling Funny?, Styrene Is Where?, Infants?, You Put What On My Cereal?!)
- Chemicals like styrene, used to make
polystyrene plastic (Dow calls it styrofoam…shhh!) and therefore a
contaminant in all polystyrene foam packages, are known to indiscriminately
attack tissue and the nervous system. - Styrene has been detected in
factory air, as well as in ambient air, rivers, drinking water, and food that
sits in polystyrene containers. - Absorbed through the lungs, skin, and
intestines; styrene biotransforms into a carcinogen and a mutagenic compound.
Throw It Where?! The Core Of
Disposal Issues
(According To The Industry…, The Facts, Incineration, Recycling)
- Polystyrene promotes the throw away consumer ethic.
- More permanent, less polluting, reusable alternatives are available for almost all
of its current applications, but industry chooses to ignore these options. - Polystyrene gets the worst rating for its recyclability.
Everything you ever wanted to know about
polystyrene and the McToxics Campaign
(McLibel
Trial Testimony)
Eliminating the Use of Polystyrene
Return to Plastics vs. the Environment Homepage
Last modified: 4 Mar 1996
http://www.ejnet.org/plastics/polystyrene/