Efforts by packaging giant Cascades Inc. to manufacture biodegradable polystyrene containers have run into skepticism from environmentalists.

The Montreal-based company has launched its Bioxo line of containers, made of a polystyrene foam claimed to disintegrate in three years.

Conventional foam products, which take hundreds of years to decompose, can be recycled but largely end up in garbage dumps.

"Our goal is to reduce the amount of space that it takes up in landfill sites so that we don’t continue building landfill sites across Canada and the United States," Sandra Hudon, sales director of Cascades’ specialty products group, said Friday.

The company uses a patented additive created 10 years ago by Vancouver company EPI to produce rigid foam containers that can quickly disintegrate.

The TDPA (Totally Degradable Plastic Additives) product is mixed with plastic resin to produce plates, containers and other foam products.

The additive accelerates the breakdown of polystyrene molecules when they come into contact with mechanical stress, heat or light.

In three years, the trays would be reduced to dust.

But environmentalists fear the additive contains harmful heavy metals or other components that could leach when heated or are swept into the groundwater.

"I don’t dispute it will visually disappear but the idea that it’s out of sight, out of mind or that it’s gone or has no harm is what I dispute," said Jennifer Wright, head of the environmental watchdog Greenshift.

Wright, who worked as an auditor with U.S. and Canadian environmental certification agencies, said there is too much unknown about the lasting impact of the additive.

Beatrice Olivastri, chief executive officer of Friends of the Earth Canada, also is dubious about Cascades’ approach to the packaging problem.

"I’m not persuaded that degrading a petroleum-based product is as good an approach as a bio-based material that would fully biodegrade — say, for example, a cellulose product from forest fibre or agricultural fibres," she said.

She also fears new products such as this will disrupt recycling programs.

Source