*18 CHINA: OFFICIALS PLAN TO SEND POLYSTYRENE PACKING
Chinese officials on 3/31 announced plans to discontinue use
of non-biodegradable polystyrene food containers and instead use
easily-biodegradable containers made of wood pulp, according to
the CHINA DAILY . Polystyrene containers take about 200 years to
disintegrate, and have been widely used by the Chinese since the
1980s.
The "white pollution" of polystyrene containers makes up
about 4% of the country's 120 million tons of garbage annually,
according to National Environmental Protection Agency Vice
Director Wang Yuqing.
A Beijing company has invested $3.6 million to build a
production line that will create about 300 million wood pulp
containers per year (Deutsche Presse-Agentur).
Greenwire 4/3/97