Environmental Ethics on Trial: The Good, "The Bag," and The Ugly
A year-long pilot study of the Hefty EnergyBag program in Omaha recently concluded. The Hefty EnergyBag program provides a method for the collection of “soft plastics” that are not currently accepted for mixed recycling streams—plastics such as bread bags, potato chip bags, toothpaste tubes, candy wrappers, etc. Residents purchase orange Hefty-brand bags, fill the bags with their non-recyclable soft plastics, and place the bags into recycling bins. When the bags arrive at recycling sorting facilities, they are removed from the recycling stream and reserved for alternative uses. In the Omaha pilot, that alternative use was as a fuel source for a Kansas City cement kiln.
Proponents of the EnergyBag program say that using these soft plastics as fuel is far preferable to them ending up in a landfill, where they can take hundreds of years to decompose. They argue that the benefits of diverting this waste from landfills outweighs the risks posed by the greenhouse gasses emitted when such waste is incinerated.
However, opponents of the program are concerned that this alternative fuel source is no less harmful than burning coal—possibly even more so. They also worry that waste-to-energy programs hinder zero-waste efforts, which aim to reduce the production of non-recyclable plastics in the first place.
What are the environmental ethical considerations of EnergyBags? Come explore this topic with us as the audience votes on the ethical fate of the EnergyBag!
The program will include lively presentations from community and business leaders, such as:
AND MORE!
5:00-6:00 Appetizers and Networking
6:00-8:00 Program and Discussion
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