What materials to use to save our world?

Question

My chemistry professor recently criticized on the comments of some students about Styrofoam. She said although it was true that Styrofoam is non-biodegradable, and the use of Styrofoam food containers is bad, using alternative such as paper is not a good solution, she said that it depends not only in the type of material used but also on the quantity. I didn't quite get what she said... do you agree?

I think what she was trying to say is that, for example, we use styro to trap the heat inside our disposable coffee cups and not to conduct too much as for us to be able to handle it... but if we use paper instead, we might be using more just to hold the water inside... is that it? Are there better explanations... please make it short and simple...

Answer 1

Nothing beats the BASICS in life. Man's love for convenience makes us environmental failures.

Answer 2

well, what the h**l is styrofoam made from? Obviously paper is made form trees and maybe that is whree your professor was going... We do need to stop cutting down trees!

Answer 3

I don't understand either. But using styrofoam is bad.

Answer 4

The issue is THE APPLICATIONS AND THE LIFE CYCLE OF A PRODUCT .. you should not condemn any material across the board for all applications.  You should identify the application and the ENTIRE LIFE CYCLE of the application to see if it is "good" or "bad" ..What you will find is most things and their applications have  trade-offs.. some good some bad..

To your example: while it is true that in general use as disposable food containers Styrofoam is not ideal because it causes SO much waste that is biodegradable and Styrofoam is not easily recyclable.   Even so, you should not condemn Styrofoam for ALL uses.  Styrofoam has so many beneficial uses.. its properties are very beneficial for insulation of homes and buildings for example .. (it is non biodegradable and not rot, it has high insulation value, etc. )

Paper food containers cause a lot of waste.. and are biodegradable but most waste is placed in landfills.  Landfills do not biodegrade paper they are anaerobic (e.g. without oxygen).  Studies have show that newspapers dug up after 30 years in a land fill can still be read!  I have seen people use 2 or 3 paper cups for hot liquids just to protect them from the heat!

All your teacher is trying to teach you is to be open to entire life cycles of products and how things interact.  It is not always black and white..

Answer 5

I have lots of info that I think you will find quite helpful and enlightening:

http://360.yahoo.com/blorm_multaeeneea_l...

http://ecowellness.multiply.com/

Let us all strive for a greener/brighter future by helping to create a solid foundation for future generations to build upon, so we can hand them a beautiful world, filled with never ending awe and wonders!!

Where peoples differences and uniqueness are accepted, where we all live as one, helping one another so that we can all play our own mysteriously beautiful melodies in the never ending, awe inspiring, song of life :-)