单项选择题
Clearly, plastic does pose a threat to wildlife. But has its status as an environmental villain been exaggerated Many of the world’s most potent environmental threats are invisible, but plastic lingers in trees and rivers as a reminder of the consequences of our consumption. However, in some cases, plastic is environmentally the better option.
For example Riverford Organics, one of the largest vegetable box schemes in the UK, discovered that swapping short-lived cardboard boxes for more durable plastic ones could reduce the company’s carbon footprint from packaging by 70%. There was one problem. "Our customers hate plastic with a vengeance (极度地) ," the company’s website says. Even though paper and cardboard are responsible for 85% of the carbon footprint from packaging, virtually all complaints are about the plastic bags, which are responsible for only 8% of the footprint.
Guy Watson, the founder of Riverford, was prepared to make the investment in plastic boxes, but decided to test the water with a customer survey last summer. Around third of respondents were "pretty intensely opposed" to the change and as a result, the company bottled out, concerned that plastic boxes would put off new and existing customers who think plastic is environmentally unfriendly and ugly.
Watson is unwilling to take that risk at the moment, but says he’d "be surprised if we don’t have plastic boxes within five or 10 years". Meanwhile, the company is investigating the possibility of using bamboo.
So is the future plastic fantastic Julie Hill, author of the forthcoming book The Secret Life of Stuff, says that plastic has environmental potential because it is very durable, adaptable, flexible and light. Plastic’s durability, for instance, means it can have a lower impact (if re-used, as Riverford had planned)than materials such as cardboard, despite the fact that plastic has two to three times more embodied carbon than paper and card.
Unfortunately, Hill says, plastic’s potential is often unfulfilled: plastic products are frequently used only briefly and thrown away. According to the government’s Waste and Resources Action Programme, 85% of local authorities in England collect plastic bottles, and only 26% collect other rigid mixed plastics. If plastic is allowed to escape into the environment it is a hazard as it mostly doesn’t biodegrade.
Ultimately, it all depends on how a material, whether plastic or paper, is used--and what happens at the end of its life. Plastic pollution such as the "great garbage patch" of the Pacific may capture our imaginations, but plastic’s bad reputation is not always borne out by the facts. Just because a brown cardboard box looks greener than plastic, that doesn’t mean it is.
A. The company will not gain profit from producing plastic boxes.
B. He will invest in plastic boxes within five or ten years.
C. He has changed to investigate the possibility of using bamboo.
D. The company was worried that its customers would be offended.