Group shares tips on sustainable plastics, safer companies

Individually speaking, many businesses are making the choice to ditch petroleum-derived plastics for ones that contain a higher concentration of plastic made from bio-created oils. Likewise, the hunt for safer chemicals is accelerating in corporate research and development laboratories around the world. With an eye toward speeding things up a bit, a coalition of environmental health groups calling itself BizNGO Group has released frameworks for companies working on projects like these.

The two frameworks are called "The Principles for Sustainable Plastics" and "The Chemical Alternatives Assessment Protocol (v.1.0): How to Select Safer Alternatives to Chemicals of Concern to Human Health or the Environment." (That is truly a mouthful; just saying.)

One of the BizNGO participants, Helen Holder, corporate material selection manager for giant technology company Hewlett-Packard, said:

"We find the BizNGO Chemical Alternatives Assessment Protocol compelling, because it lays out a meaningful process for selecting alternatives to restricted substances that have a lower impact to human health and the environment. Also, businesses needed better tools for identifying truly sustainable plastics. The principles are a first step to getting us ont this path. I look forward to the BizNGO delivering a final tool that embodies these principles next year."

Now, the challenge lies in getting as many companies as possible to actually start using them.

This post was originally published on Smartplanet.com