Ever since plastic has been introuduced, it has been portrayed in equally opposite perspectives: the revolutionary miracle material versus the compromise of industrial progress.

Some people point plastics as a material that somehow succeeds at nature's expense; indifferent and perhaps even hostile to the concept of conservation. Of course the result... though dramatic, more often represents a collection of misconceptions rather than the facts.

A clearer picture is required if we are to agree upon effective solutions to our environmental challenges. In fact, the very characteristics most often cited as the major environmental faults are exactly those qualities that originally made plastics a miracle material ... and will continue to make plastics an important part of our lives in the future.

A large contribution made by plastics to the packaging industry is its ability to be made into very thin films and containers. It is absolutely true that packagers are increasingly substituting plastics for alternative packaging materials because they can achieve significant reductions in packaging weight, volume and cost for the same amount of product delivered.

If other materials were substituted for plastics in packaging, the environmental impact would be severe. It has been estimated that the weight of packaging waste would increase over 400 %, the volume of packaging waste would increase over 250 %, energy consumption would increase over 200 percent and overall packaging costs would increase 210 percent.

Packaging is an essential part of the public health, economic well-being, standard of living and lifestyle of modern societies. Countries lacking sophisticated packaging and distribution systems have food contamination and spoilage rates approaching 50 percent - a lot more trash requiring disposal. In India, the spoilage rates are also very high.

Modern landfills need to be managed to entomb trash so that little, if any, degradation actually occurs. Because of the lack of oxygen and moisture required for decomposition, even vegetable matter shows little decay over decades. The by-products resulting from the degradation of any material can have serious environmental consequences, including toxic leachates and atmospheric greenhouse gases.

Materials that are landfilled should be physically stable, non-degradable, and not contribute to groundwater contamination or gas generation. Plastics meet these criteria and behave as "model citizens" in a landfill environment.

As people become better informed about solid waste issues, the focus of attention will shift away from the degradability myth and toward real solutions like source reduction, reuse, recycling and recovery of energy - solutions in which plastics play an important role.

To obtain maximum scrap value, the plastics should be separated by type just as you would separate different types of paper or colours of glass. If the plastics are not separated and remain commingled, some recycling operators can use them to produce lumber-substitutes for numerous outdoor applications.

While recycling must continue to play a vital role in diverting waste from landfill where technically and economically feasible, most solid waste officials now agree that an integrated approach to resource management is the most effective way to achieve safe, economical results.

An integrated approach selectively utilizes source reduction (making less), reuse (where appropriate), resource recovery (including materials recovery through recycling and energy recovery) and, finally, retention in landfill.