Here today, gone tomorrow.
LOWER POTTSGROVE PA – Allegheny Printed Plastics, a Pittsburgh-based manufacturer of plastic card stock and sheets, on Friday (Nov. 21, 2008) announced it had begun selling biodegradable plastic cards that disintegrate over periods of nine months to five years. Its product looks, feels and performs like standard plastic, but begins to break down in the presence of what Allegheny calls a “fertile environment:” water, soil, compost, and the presence of micro-organisms that actually eat the card.
Allegheny’s target market is ecology-minded companies, like some retailers, who issue credit cards but don’t want them to last forever in a landfill once a consumer’s spending ends.
It could be used, too, by schools – like those in the Pottsgrove School District – that teach environmental awareness and annually issue hundreds of student identification cards made out of … plastic.
