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The Thursday discussion section played the SQUID game (Gamestorming, page 208) applied to Sarah Kintner's project to reduce plastic waste. Presented below is Sarah's statement of the problem.
2. Statement of the Problem
Globally plastic bags, packaging and containers provide consumers with a method for carrying food and goods. Unfortunately more than 90% this mass is discarded and becomes an enormous burden in landfills, waterways, and the oceans of the world.
The Environmental Protection Agency United States 2010 solid waste numbers in Figure 6 (1) details for the "Containers & Packaging" category at 30.3% for Municipal Solid Waste weighing 75.75 million tons. This yearly weight is equivalent to 19 million cars (2 tons) placed end to end the cars (15 ft long) wrapping around the world 9.5 times. This yearly plastic waste ends up in landfills or accumulates in the oceans.
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(1) Figure 6. Environmental Protection Agency, (EPA), Municipal Solid Waste Generation, Recycling, and Disposal in the United States: Facts and Figures for 2010, EPA-530-F-11-005, December 2011, www.epa.gov/wastes. |
Marine debris has become a large environmental problem and one of the largest contaminants are plastic and paper bags, caps and lids, and food wrappers and containers. In Table 4 (2) below from the United Nations Environment Programme publication Marine Litter: A Global Challenge, the bag and container portion adds up to 27.4% of marine debris.
 | (2) United Nations Environment Programme, UNEP, 2009. Marine Litter: A Global Challenge. Nairobi: UNEP. 196 pp. |
The group started with the statement "Too much plastic waste," then generated a first round of questions on pink Post-it notes, shown below. Related questions were grouped in columns, as shown.
| Source/Quantity Questions | Solutions? | Good question! | Follow a plastic bag | Recycling | History |
| What is the source? | How do we reduce plastic waste? | What are the alternatives? | What is the life cycle of a plastic bag? | Why is recycling inefficient? | Why have we used plastic? |
| Where is all the plastic waste coming from? | How can we decrease plastic waste? | What did our ancestors do? | If we know the life cycle, what is the best stage for intervention? | ||
| Where did the idea for plastic bags come from? | How can we get people to decrease their plastic waste? | ||||
| How much is too much plastic waste? | Could you as a consumer give up plastic bags? | ||||
| Who uses the most? | |||||
| Why is there so much plastic waste? |
In the class discussion, we decided that the Source/Quantity Questions (first column) could be answered by research, and were not best addressed by a round of answers in class.
There are a set of questions about Solutions (second column) that capture the sense that something must be done.
The class decided that "What are the alternatives?" was the golden question that could generate some interesting answers. The class generated answers on blue Post-it notes, shown below.
There is certainly room to explore some of the other questions that we did not deal with.
| What are the alternatives? | |||||||
| Biodegradable (plant based) | Better recycling methods | Biodegradable (petroleum based) | Bags you rent from the store | Glass | No plastic cups or water bottles | Change purchasing habits | Virtual containers |
| plant-based containers | Rewards for recycling | ||||||
| cloth bags/reusable bags | |||||||
| paper bags | |||||||
The various solutions offer different advantages and disadvantages. We generated a set of questions that apply to all of the alternatives. These are shown below.
| What are the alternatives? | |||||||
| Biodegradable (plant based) | Better recycling methods | Biodegradable (petroleum based) | Bags you rent from the store | Glass | No plastic cups or water bottles | Change purchasing habits | Virtual containers |
| plant-based containers | Rewards for recycling | ||||||
| cloth bags/reusable bags | |||||||
| paper bags | |||||||
| Cost (Energy)? | Cost (Farmland)? | Cost (Consumer Rejection)? | Cost (Environmental)? | ||||
We generated a matrix to evaluate the cost of the various proposed solutions, shown below.
| Biodegradable Plastic (Petroleum-based) |
Biodegradable Plastic (Plant-based) |
Plant Material | Merchant-Owned Container | Virtual Container (Force Field) |
Glass | |
| Cost (Energy)? |
Manufacturing + Transportation |
Manufacturing + Transportation |
Manufacturing + Transportation |
Manufacturing + Transportation |
ENORMOUS! | Manufacturing + Transportation |
| Cost (Farmland)? |
zero | some | some | depends on material | zero | zero |
| Cost (Consumer Rejection)? |
some | some | some | HIGH! | unknown | some |
| Cost (Environmental)? |
low | low | low | depends on material | unknown | some |
The class discussed the key strengths and weaknesses of each solution. Note that the status quo (nonbiodegradable plastics) is not presented as an option.
Biodegradable plastics and plant materials. Biodegradable plastics with a lifespan of two to five years in the environment and biodegradable plant materials (descended from the woven basket) are similar. There is some energy cost in manufacturing and transport. Petroleum-based biodegradable plastics do not compete with food crops for farmland. Reasonably good consumer acceptance of these solutions is expected.
Merchant-owned container. This set of solutions is descended from the returnable bottle and includes reusable shopping bags and other containers. Depending on what these are made of, there might be some environmental impact if they are discarded. Most consumers do not use reusable bags even when shopping at Whole Foods and other establishments that attract environmentally-sensitive consumers. Because hauling empty containers back to the merchant is inconvenient, and because merchants must devote resources to sorting, storing, and transporting empty containers, there is considerable consumer resistance to these solutions. This is an area in which there is considerable room for innovation to overcome consumer resistance.
Virtual Container (Force Field). The principal flaw of this solution is the enormous energy cost, which may be guessed at many orders of magnitude more than that of other solutions. The enormous energy cost would likely produce environmental damage by itself, unless there is also an energy solution that produces unlimited quantities of energy at very low cost with no environmental impact.
Glass. Glass does not degrade in the environment. It recycles easily. Because glass containers break, and broken glass is sharp, many glass containers have been replaced by plastic ones (jars, bottles, etc.).