Plastic

I think it’s interesting we were asked to write on our thoughts of this video. I am a huge Colbert Report fan and have a personal interest in recycling. A close friend of mine, Dean, just bought a coffee shop in Paia and made it an eco-café. All the “would be” plastic cups, lids, knives, forks, spoons, straws, and bags are completely bio-degradable. They even go a step beyond bio-degradable and they are actually compostable.
Dean and I work together at the Maui Arts and Cultural Center together and a little over a year ago we received a pallet of water packaged in bottles made from corn. The bottles were crystal clear and if you didn’t read the side label you would not know the difference between this bottle and a regular plastic bottle. We both were shocked because neither of us knew it was possible to make a plastic from corn that was clear and had no apparent differences to actual plastic. Ever since that moment it has been hard to hear people in power and politicians argue about the difficulties of reducing foreign oil use and dealing with the amount of garbage our country is producing. With the billions of dollars they are putting towards these goals you would thing the obvious and simple solutions would be at the top of the list. I saw a PowerPoint presentation on the amount of oil and gas we would save if the world stopped using plastic shopping bags and the numbers were enormous.
Imagine if Obama’s cabinet set a goal for all commercial use of plastic bottles, plastic cups, lids, knives, forks, spoons, straws, and bags were to be completely bio-degradable by 2012. If you have ever seen the many websites dedicated to helping business find federal grants you would discover that the government creates grants and tax breaks for all kinds of business. A hot example right now is Solar Energy. If they created a Federal Grant and tax breaks to the companies that would meet the new demand of plastic alternative products it could reduce our use of oil, create a new industry and help finance and encourage current producers of petroleum based plastic to convert to more bio-friendly options.