美国国家公共电台 NPR Beyond Plastic Bans: Creating Products To Replace It

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Beyond Plastic Bans: Creating Products To Replace It

LULU GARCIA-NAVARRO, HOST:

Plastic pollution is a big problem. And there are a growing number of campaigns to ban plastic waste. That's putting pressure on companies not just over straws but all kinds of plastic that's used in packaging. So there's now a budding market for alternatives. Cassandra Profita of Oregon Public Broadcasting and NPR's energy and environment team takes us to a lab that's creating some of them.

CASSANDRA PROFITA, BYLINE¹: Packaging designer Ryan Gaither believes in the power of cardboard. He's laid down a massive sheet of it - as big as a king-size bed - at the Swedish-owned BillerudKorsnas design lab in Portland. He flips² the switch on a machine that zips around the cardboard like a robotic X-Acto knife.

(SOUNDBITE OF MACHINE RUNNING)

RYAN GAITHER: Basically, anything that we create - any design that we're looking to test out or validate³ we cut out with this machine.

PROFITA: When it's done, he folds the resulting cut-out into a three-dimensional shape. It's a replacement⁴ for the plastic foam⁵ end caps companies used to ship laptop computers. Gaither says inventions like this are helping⁶ the company build a growing customer list.

GAITHER: I think now people are more concerned about the impact that plastic's having on the environment. Paper packaging is a much more renewable resource. It biodegrades.

PROFITA: Their customers are now using cardboard in place of clear plastic packaging for camping gear. They're using paper bags instead of plastic ones for food like pasta. The company is even developing a paper soda⁷ bottle.

TOR LUNDQVIST: The paper bottle initiative, that's very interesting. It's the fly to the moon kind of thing.

PROFITA: Tor Lundqvist is the head of the Americas division of BillerudKorsnas, which is primarily a paper company that prides itself on sustainably managed forests. It also has a secret process for making super strong paper.

LUNDQVIST: So we can use these products in solutions where they can actually push out plastic for plastic bags, for instance, or plastic trays.

PROFITA: And Lundqvist says any time you replace plastic with paper, it does more than reduce plastic pollution. It also helps climate change because plastic is made from fossil fuels.

CONRAD MACKERRON: I think, you know, the devil's in the details.

PROFITA: Conrad MacKerron works for As You Sow, a nonprofit that's teaming up with investors⁸ to push big manufacturers to change their plastic packaging. He's heard about the BillerudKorsnas paper bottle project. And he says he doubts a leakproof bottle can be made purely⁹ out of paper. A lot of paper products aren't as sustainable as they look.

MACKERRON: Paper cups, in general, we think of them as recyclable. But because of the thin, plastic lining¹⁰, a lot of paper mills cannot process them. So they reject the cups, and they go to landfills.

PROFITA: But MacKerron says a lot of big companies are finally taking this problem seriously. Scientists say the world is dumping eight million tons of plastic into the oceans every year. And it never goes away. It's choking fish and filling the bellies¹¹ of seabirds and turtles. It's even showing up in our drinking water.

MACKERRON: And I think the sense that it's become pervasive¹² is what can change the tide and come up with, perhaps, radical¹³ new solutions that were not thinkable three, four, five years ago.

PROFITA: Meanwhile, Swedish paper company BillerudKorsnas is seeing 25 percent revenue growth year after year. Back at the company's lab in Portland, designers slide the laptop with the paper end caps into a box and test it to see if the paper can match the protective power of plastic. A mechanical arm drops it three feet.

(SOUNDBITE OF THUD)

PROFITA: Another machine shakes it around to mimic¹⁴ the bumps on a delivery truck.

(SOUNDBITE OF MACHINE RATTLING)

PROFITA: No dents¹⁵ and nothing broken - that could mean more customers will one day ship their laptops in plastic-free packaging. For NPR News, I'm Cassandra Profita in Portland.