Obama's unnecessary slam against plastics

By: Don Loepp

June 25, 2013

President Obama cited the plastics industry in his big speech on climate change today, but the reference may leave a sour taste in the mouths of some Plastics Blog readers.

Here's the relevant excerpt:





Fair point?

First, let's provide the context. Obama was speaking today at Georgetown University in what the White House billed as a major speech on climate change.

There are plenty of plastics company leaders who have been pushing for action on climate change for a long time -- well over a decade. So it's not like this is an environmentalists vs. plastics issue. (If you don't believe me, check out this 2006 story on Robert Schad, "Environmental causes reignite retired Schad.")

On top of that, what exactly is Obama talking about when he mentions that "we restricted cancer-causing chemicals in plastics"? It's not clear, but apparently it's the Food and Drug Administration's 2012 decision to exclude baby bottles and sippy cups from regulations that permit companies to use bisphenol A in food-contact applications. ("FDA agrees to revise rules on BPA in baby bottles.")

Remember, though, that by that point, all major baby-bottle makers in the U.S. had stopped making bottles from polycarbonate -- three years earlier.

So it seems a bit odd to be taking credit for restricting BPA -- a chemical that's still in plenty of food packaging and other products.

Obama's plastics reference today seems a little out of left field, and any mention of "plastics" and "cancer-causing chemicals" is likely to reinforce a negative image that many consumers have about plastics packaging and food service products.

It was an unhelpful, and unnecessary, slam against plastics.