Chicago becomes first city to ban BPA bottles, cups

May 13, 2009

BY FRAN SPIELMAN City Hall Reporter

Chicago on Wednesday became the first city in the nation to ban baby bottles and sippy cups containing the potentially-harmful chemical bisphenol A.

Tests of laboratory animals have linked the chemical, widely-known as BPA, to breast cancer, prostate cancer, diabetes and neurological disorders.

Ald. Manny Flores (1st) said the City Council moved to fill a consumer protection void created when the U.S. Food and Drug Administration concluded there is no harm from the low doses of BPA that come from eating foods from containers made with the chemical.

"The FDA has dropped the ball. They've been wishy-washy at best and, at worst, they're playing hanky-panky with the [plastics] industry," Flores said.

Read more HERE

Huffington Post: The Plastics Out There and In Here

There's a patch of ocean out there about as far as you can get from people on this small blue marble we call Earth, and it is slowly filling with tiny flecks of plastic.

Read more HERE

Experimental project to clean Pacific Ocean garbage patch

Project Kaisei is a bold attempt to filter out and recycle plastic from the continent-sized patch of garbage in the Pacific Ocean.

Read more HERE

Reusable Bags Help Marks & Spencer Cut Plastic Bags by 80%

After introducing a surcharge on disposable plastic bags and encouraging the use of reusable bags, British retailer Marks & Spencer has cut its disposable plastic bag purchasing by 80 percent.

Another retailer, the National Trust, has similarly seen its plastic bag usage decline 85 percent, reports The Guardian UK.

Read more HERE

Plastic Ocean

Plastic, one of the big challenges of our times, Are you ready for aDayWithoutPlastic.org?

'"Except for the small amount that's been incinerated — and it's a very small amount — every bit of plastic ever made still exists," Moore says, describing how the material's molecular structure resists biodegradation. Instead, plastic crumbles into ever-tinier fragments as it's exposed to sunlight and the elements. And none of these untold gazillions of fragments is disappearing anytime soon: Even when plastic is broken down to a single molecule, it remains too tough for biodegradation.'

Read More HERE