to the editor: America is plagued with stories of products that were tragically introduced into widespread use before their flaws were discovered, and then required decades of fighting and continued pollution to remove from the market. DDT, polychlorinated biphenyls, hydrofluorocarbons, lead paint – I could go on and on. Styrofoam, widely known as polystyrene in the US, is a rare success story in which the public realized that the industry had made a terrible mistake and insisted that it be corrected (“Styrofoam fights for its life as the plastics industry pushes recycling” July 15).
As the author of some of the first ordinances restricting the use and sale of Styrofoam, I welcome this democratic course correction. Styrofoam should never have been born. Let him die.
Tim Goncharoff, Fairfield
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to the editor: What is the point of making decisions? This sign is not in a straight line.
The cue ball is made of Styrofoam and no one has time.
— “Half-Step Toodleloo in Mississippi,” Grateful Dead
Failed attempts to legislate plastic recycling show that no one has the time (or money) to recycle single-use plastics, which has limited benefit anyway. Unlike metals, plastics cannot be recycled repeatedly without degrading their quality. Therefore, recycling plastics only delays their inevitable fate as pollution.
The definitive solution is to use degradable plastics. Several have already been developed. In the meantime, what can we do with all this plastic we are buried in? Convert them back into fuel.
Polyethylene can be catalyzed into hydrogen and valuable pure carbon graphene. And what about polystyrene? Burn it! This may seem crazy to environmentalists, since burning polystyrene at low temperatures releases benzene and a host of other poisons. However, if burned at more than 1,000 degrees Celsius, polystyrene has been shown burn more cleanly, generating mainly water and carbon dioxide.
We don't need more carbon dioxide in the air. But as long as we continue to operate coal-burning power plants (which are now capable of operating at speeds up to 1,700 degrees Celsius), we can also burn part of the polystyrene by mixing it with charcoal. It's better than throwing it into the ocean.
Jack Debes, Santa Monica
