[Sustainable-biodiesel] sustainable fuels hit The Onion

[Emily B. Landsburg]

Just for fun:

 

http://www.theonion.com/content/news/new_eco_friendly_packaging

 

New Eco-Friendly Packaging Triggers Boom In Guilt-Free Littering

 

The Onion (July 21, 2007) Issue 43.29 </content/index/4329> 

 

ROCKFORD, IL-Nick Sundin used to be neurotic about littering. The
37-year-old pediatrician admits he kept trash bags in his car, and would
even pick up and throw away garbage he found on the street. Since boyhood,
Sundin said, he was keenly attuned to the environmental degradation
littering caused, an attitude triggered by the famous Keep America Beautiful
"Crying Indian" public service announcement he saw on television as a young
man.

 

Not anymore.

 

"These 'eco' products are amazing-they've totally changed my life," Sundin
said. "Now, I just toss my used Seventh Generation-brand paper plates out
the car window, knowing they'll soon be absorbed into the earth."

 

The growing "green" trend in product packaging, which emphasizes the use of
recycled, biodegradable post-consumer paper-based materials and relies less
on petroleum-derived polymers like styrofoam, has unleashed a spontaneous
trashing of sidewalks, roadsides, and pristine wilderness by gratified
consumers. Though some environmentalists and scientists were caught off
guard by the movement, experts say it is here to stay.

 

"The stigma attached to littering is at long last being put to rest,"
industry analyst Tom Schneider said. "As long as manufacturers are packaging
their goods in unbleached paper and biodegradable, cornstarch-based
plastics, more and more consumers will discard their refuse wherever they
please, knowing it will safely decompose within 10 to 20 years. Call it the
'New Compost.'"

 

"PITCH OUT." Environmentally conscious consumers litter a New Mexico
roadside with earth-safe eco-waste.

 

The reaction from "neo-litterbugs" like Sundin has been nothing less than
ecstatic. Highway littering shot up 6 percent nationwide in the last weeks
of 2006, shortly after retail giant Wal-Mart announced its intention to
encourage its tens of thousands of suppliers worldwide to reduce packaging
materials.

 

And now that McDonald's is incorporating post-consumer materials into some
of its packaging, Golden Arches-decorated wrappers and cups are becoming
common sites in public parks, residential districts, Civil War
battlegrounds, peregrine falcon nesting boxes, and coastal tide pools. 

 

Consumers are also growing more packaging-conscious, checking containers and
boxes for recycled and post-consumer content to ensure that, once used, they
can be properly wasted. 

 

Receiving a decorative metal tin of cheese popcorn on Administrative
Professionals Day in April delighted Miramar, FL medical records supervisor
Donna Kern. Finding out that the tin contained 80 percent recycled material
delighted her even more.

 

"I never used to know what to do with those tins, so they just created
clutter in my home," Kern said. "But when I saw that this one was made of
recycled metal and nontoxic paint, I went and sank it in the Everglades. Now
I'm going through my home to see what other environmentally friendly things
I can throw away or burn. Caring about nature has never been so fun."

 

Eco-littering, however, is just one of the ways the public is embracing the
green idea. The growing popularity of flex-fuel cars, which can run on
regular gasoline or the ethanol-hydrocarbon compound known as E85, means
more people can enjoy old-fashioned Sunday joyrides and short drives to the
neighborhood supermarket without fretting about wasting nonrenewable fuel.
Compact fluorescent lightbulbs now save the trouble of turning off lights.
And cleaner-burning fuels and sustainable energy sources such as wind and
solar power are making the longtime dream of running household appliances at
all hours a reality.

 

"Since they began discussing the construction of that offshore wind farm, I
don't worry about leaving my air conditioner and television on for my cats
when I go away," Worcester, MA retiree Herk Ellroy said. "They can get very
hot. And lonely."

 

The new prevalence of eco-friendly packaging is the culmination of a
decades-long struggle between environmentalists and the business community.
Still, some activists are dissatisfied with the results. To curb the new
littering, the Sierra Club is now suggesting that all consumer packaging be
coated with a toxic, nonbiodegradable polymer all consumer packaging be
coated with a toxic, nonbiodegradable polymer that would kill wildlife and
poison groundwater unless products were disposed of in heavy plastic garbage
bags.

 

 

----------______________________________

Emily Bockian Landsburg

Manager of Business Development

Philadelphia Fry-o-Diesel

1218 Chestnut St. Suite 1003, Philadelphia, PA  19107

t:215 413 2122  f:215 413 2140 www.fryodiesel.com

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