To the editor: The U.S. is plagued by tales of merchandise that have been tragically launched into widespread use earlier than their flaws have been realized, and which then took a long time of battle and ongoing air pollution to take away from {the marketplace}. DDT, polychlorinated biphenyls, hydrofluorocarbons, lead paint — I might go on and on. Polystyrene foam, extensively known as styrofoam within the U.S., is a uncommon success story wherein the general public realized trade made a horrible mistake and insisted that or not it’s corrected (“Styrofoam fights for its life as plastic trade mounts recycling push,” July 15).
Because the creator of a number of the earliest ordinances proscribing the use and sale of polystyrene foam, I have a good time this democratic course correction. Polystyrene foam ought to have by no means been born. Let it die.
Tim Goncharoff, Fairfield
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To the editor: What’s the purpose of callin’ pictures; this cue ain’t straight in line.
Cue ball’s product of styrofoam and nobody’s received the time.
— “Mississippi Half-Step Uptown Toodleloo,” Grateful Useless
Failed makes an attempt to legislate plastic recycling show that nobody’s received the time (or cash) to recycle single-use plastics, which is of restricted profit anyway. Not like metals, plastics can’t be recycled repeatedly with out degrading in high quality. Thus, recycling plastics solely delays their inevitable destiny as air pollution.
The last word answer is to make use of degradable plastics. A number of have already been developed. Within the meantime, what can we do with all of those plastics we’re getting buried in? Flip them again into gas.
Polyethylene will be catalyzed into hydrogen and invaluable pure carbon graphene. And what concerning the styrofoam? Burn it! This may occasionally sound insane to environmentalists, as burning polystyrene at low temperatures releases benzene and an entire host of different poisons. Nevertheless, if burned above 1,000 levels Celsius, polystyrene has been proven to burn extra cleanly, producing largely water and carbon dioxide.
We don’t want extra carbon dioxide within the air. However so long as we proceed to function coal-burning energy crops (which at the moment are able to working as excessive as 1,700 levels Celsius), we could as effectively burn off a number of the styrofoam by mixing it with coal. It beats dumping it within the ocean.
Jack Debes, Santa Monica
