A new low in plastic packaging

Back in July, when I embarked on the Plastic-Free July challenge, I discovered just how hard it really is to avoid single-use plastic, particularly in packaging. Even though I almost never buy prepared foods of any kind, I couldn't get through a grocery shopping trip without bringing home more of the stuff—a bag of popcorn, a carton of eggs, a gallon of milk. Even containers that weren't made of plastic, like a cardboard box of tea bags or a tin of ginger mints, came in a plastic wrapper.

However, the most absurd, ironic use of plastic packaging I noticed during that month was something I spotted on a trip to the H-Mart. Next to the checkout was a display of kids' plastic toys and dishes with labels boasting that they were made of environmentally friendly sugar cane bagasse. Now, bioplastics like these have problems of their own, as this post on Columbia University's "State of the Planet" blog points out. Although they have a smaller carbon footprint than petroleum-based plastics, they also produce more pollution over their life cycle, from the chemicals used to grow the crops they're made from to the processes that turn those materials into plastic. Also, they're harder to recycle, at least at present, so they usually end up in landfills, where they produce methane as they break down. They use up land that could be devoted to food crops, and they're expensive.

However, as bioplastics go, plastic made from sugar cane bagasse is better than most. Bagasse is a by-product of sugar production that would just go to waste normally, so it's not using up valuable cropland. And it can be made about as cheaply as petroleum-based plastic, according to the MIT Technology Review. So, that's good, right?

But now here's the catch. All these eco-friendly, plant-based plastic items come packaged in...plastic. Good old-fashioned petroleum-based plastic.

I suppose the absurdity of bioplastic packaged in petroleum plastic is probably some sort of metaphor to do with environmentalism or society or life itself, but unfortunately, I'm not feeling sharp enough at the moment to figure out just what it is. The only moral I can spot in the story is that greenwashing is everywhere, and you need to keep a sharp eye out for it. Pretty much any product can slap some kind of a green claim on its label, so if you want to buy truly sustainable products, you need to look beyond the label and take a hard look at the products themselves, including how they're packaged.

Or maybe it's just that a Korean supermarket isn't necessarily the best place to go looking for them.