Comments on JR says... (whether or not anyone is listening): Plastic Rating System - unhealthy opinions vs. fac...

What an awesome analogy... A view (and so eloquent...

2009-02-24T11:24:00.000-05:00

What an awesome analogy... A view (and so eloquently put) that most of us are unwilling to challenge, since the impact on "convenience" is too great. Ah... there it is again... "convenience" - the one truth in product success, even when the cost is health. Perhaps.

BTW - this morning, my coffee guy changed to Polystyrene coffee cups (recycle #6)... he really cares about his customers - this, the same guy who has a sign hanging in his shop telling his customers "Our new credit manager is Ms. Helen Waite - so if you want credit, go to Helen Waite" (read it twice if you don't get it). Needless to say, I'm finding a new coffee guy. ;)

Perhaps plastic water bottles, soda bottles and mi...

2009-02-24T09:58:00.000-05:00

Perhaps plastic water bottles, soda bottles and microwaveable containers are to us what the lead cooking pots were to the Romans! As Nero burned down Rome I'll bet no one, as they were running for their lives, stopped to ponder, to the dulcet tones of the Emperor's fiddle, if it was the cooking pot that drove their ruler mad. Only through the prism of time and the focus of hindsight that we now know the Romans were slowly eating themselves mad and destroying their Empire with the thought blurring sickness of lead poisoning.
Can we, with all our touted scientific prowess, hopefully foretell a future where they look back at us and shake their heads in dismay, "Didn't they know that the dioxins, bisphenol A, phthalates and xenotoxins leaching from all those plastic containers was causing the increased cancers, osteoporosis, alzheimers, autism and epigenetic changes?" They simply drank themselves to death and mutation in the name of health! They worried about the terrorist attacks never realizing who owned the water companies! Crazy!

Thanks for the clarification... My original post p...

2009-02-13T10:58:00.000-05:00

Thanks for the clarification... My original post probably wasn't clear when I said code 7 is "either really dangerous (Polycarbonate) or really safe or something in between, depending on what it's made of". I was trying to say what you said ;)

The Polycarbonate type, which (by definition?) contains BPA, it seems, still is very much supported as a safe material as long as you don't heat it, scratch it, wash it with abrasive cleaners, or, uh... eat it!
I'm looking forward to a better code system for sure.

Wow! Thats AMAZING! I hope I never find a bad bott...

2009-02-12T17:51:00.000-05:00

Wow! Thats AMAZING! I hope I never find a bad bottle! I am going to post it on Rochelling. LOL!

-Jeremy

Code seven is a “catch-all” category designated fo...

2009-02-12T16:36:00.000-05:00

Code seven is a “catch-all” category designated for all of the plastics that do not neatly fit into any of the first six categories that were developed in 1988. Code 7 identifies the newest types of plastics such as bio-based plastics made from corn, potato starch and sugar cane, and multi-layer plastics. You identified the entire category as “polycarbonate” which is incorrect.

Here’s the key point to remember about code 7: not all of the number 7 plastics are the same. In fact, the opposite is true. Unlike codes 1 through 6, code 7 identifies a variety of different plastics, or a mix of plastics in a single container, that can not be categorized under the other codes. Your readers might also be interested to know that the ASTM, with the help of SPI and other organizations are working to enhance the current code system, adding more categories so that perhaps 7 will not be such a “catch-all” in the future.

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