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| Sunday, 8 June 2003 |
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| News Business Features Editorial
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Overseas markets for local degradable polythene bags by Ananda Kannangara Acquiring new foreign markets for degradable polythene bags will help provide new employment opportunities for local youth, Chairman, Plastic Packaging (Pvt) Ltd, Mervyn Dias said. He was addressing a ceremony held at Plastic Packaging premises at Ratmalana to make the first export of degradable polythene bags to the United Kingdom. Dias said new orders for degradable polythene bags are expected from the Maldives and Canada within the next few months while more orders are expected from the UK before the end of the year. "We decided on manufacturing degradable polythene bags with the objective of restricting the use of non-degradable polythene bags and sheets which have become an environmental hazard," he said. He said if polythene bags and sheets are banned in our country, environmentally safe alternatives must also be introduced at the same time. Dias said although paper bags and cloth bags are the two options available if normal polythene bags are banned, paper bags are not water proof, while cloth bags are high in price and cannot be used to carry frozen food. "Therefore, the best option is the use of degradable polythene bags. They can be degraded through heat, sunlight, oxygen and bacteria within a short period," he said. The manufacturing technology of these polythene bags has been tested at the Industrial Technology Institute (successor to the CISIR) according to the American Standards for Testing Materials. Dias said the resin used to manufacture degradable polythene bags is imported from Singapore and Thailand while the master batch (additive) is imported from USA. "Once this additive is mixed with the normal polythene resin and processed, the resulting film or bag degrade like paper or wood," he said. The material will return to the soil fast and complete the disintegration process. Degrading takes less than 12 months according to the additive used, he added. |
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