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Monday, October 27, 2008

What I learned at the Natural & Organic Expo

Posted by Duncan Drennan at 09:07 Tags: environment , plastic , recycling , south africa
I visited the Natural & Organic Expo last weekend and learned a few things.
    Polystyrene packaging council
  1. Polystyrene can be and is being recycled in Cape Town.

    From the reading that I have done I thought that polystyrene was expensive and inefficient to recycle, mainly due to the problems associated with transporting such a light plastic, but polystyrene is actually collected, melted into ingots and recycled into picture frames, stationery, cornices, skirting boards, hangers and seedling trays. In Cape Town EPS Reclaim in Montague Gardens collects and smelts polystyrene. Find your nearest polystyrene drop off point.

  2. There is clearly a big demand for natural cleaning products.

    I was amazed at how many different natural, organic and bio–degradable household cleaning products were on show. The demand and acceptance of these products is growing not just for environmental reasons, but also due to health concerns such as allergic reactions.

  3. Oxi-degradable plastics are creating headaches for recyclers.

    I have written about oxi–degradable plastics before. It is important to realise that oxi–degradable plastic is very different from bio–degradable plastic. Companies like Green Home make bio–degradable plastic from plant sources (in their case bagasse, a byproduct of the sugar industry), while oxi–degradable plastics are normal plastic (like polyethylene) with the addition of a metal salt which causes them to break down over time. In South Africa oxi–degradable plastics have been used mainly for fruit and bread bags. The problem with these types of plastics is that they are indistinguishable from normal plastics and it is difficult to know how far the degradation process has progressed. Oxi–degradable bags pollute the recycling stream and result in a poor quality end product.

  4. biodegradable plastic container
  5. Bio–degradable plastics require education and infrastructure.

    Bio–degradable plastic products made from sustainable sources (such as bagasse, mentioned above) may provide a viable alternative to plastic in some cases. It is important that they are manufactured from sources other than food crops (plastic from corn is unsustainable). A problem that needs to be addressed (and is being addressed by manufacturers such as Green Home) is how to manage the waste from these products. Simply dumping bio–degradable plastic into a landfill is undesirable. Bio–degradable plastics will not degrade in a landfill, which means effective collection and composting needs to take place. Consumers can compost these packages at home, but without education it is unlikely that this will happen. Education, collection and composting infrastructure is an important aspect of bio–degradable plastic.

  6. Egg yolks contain colourant.

    Pick 'n Pay is selling a new range of indigenous free range eggs, and one of the marketing points is "No yolk colourants." Yolk colourants? It turns out that chicken feed is often supplemented to increase its carotenoid content to obtain a more consistent colour yolk. The supplements used appear to be natural or "nature identical" such as lutein and canthaxanthin.

It was good to meet new people, get exposed to a few new ideas and to find new sources of organic and environmentally aware products. If you are in Cape Town and the surrounding area then make a point to go next year.
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3 comments :

  1. Stefan van der Walt10/30/2008 8:47 am

    This sounds like a fantastic event -- I should have been there. Thanks for the highlights package!

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  2. Francois Cilliers11/27/2008 11:40 pm

    About the "big demand" for natural cleaning products: I'm happy to say that I have made my first contribution towards that demand by buying a jar of Triple Orange degreasing gel.

    However, I can't entirely agree that the demand is big at all, and I am a little dissappointed that this results in the supply of such products being very low and their prices very high. I would love to see them being marketed more aggressively and made available in all supermarkets. I had to visit a little health shop to find the abovementioned product, which cost me R80 for 500g.

    I am a little concerned about the impact that natural cleaning products may have with regard to the consumption of natural resources. But, I do believe that it is necessary to stop polluting the world with all kinds of hazardous chemicals.

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  3. Duncan Drennan11/28/2008 7:43 am

    I haven't seen Triple Orange in the general shops, but Pick 'n Pay is stocking the Bloublommetjies products at the moment.

    I am always interested to find out how well the different products work, as I have had quite mixed results. Let me know how the degreasing went.

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Duncan Drennan

I'm Duncan Drennan and this blog is about spreading ideas regarding engineering, our environment and creating a better world. You can also follow me on Google Reader.

About Engineer Simplicity

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