the european plastics recyclers association eupr is urging manufacturers to exercise caution if using oxodegradable additives, warning they have the potential to do more harm to the environment than good.eupr says it has seen no proof that oxodegradable additives help reduce greenhouse gas emissions. in addition, public misconception about the recyclability of these materials means that oxodegradable additives will end up in general waste.&ldquothe public attention will be diverted from recycling by thinking &lsquoit will degrade by itself&rsquo,&rdquo says the trade body. &ldquothis thinking will damage the recycling rates achieved after decades of efforts from industry, authorities and the population.&rdquoeupr compares plastics to an &lsquoenergy bank&rsquo and points out that energy invested in the plastic during polymerisation can be reused through recycling. however, the presence of oxodegradable additives in the plastic puts this at risk, claims the group.&ldquoit is an economic and environmental nonsense to destroy this value,&rdquo says the group. &ldquomoreover, it is the most unsustainable &ndash together with landfill &ndash way to use the valuable oil transformed in plastic.&rdquoplastics manufacturers should therefore &ldquobe watchful&rdquo when considering the use of oxo degradable additives, says eupr.eupr is not the only trade body to express concern over oxodegradable additives, as the us national association for pet container resources napcr last month said there is not enough scientific evidence to prove that these additives have any beneficial effect on the environment.&ldquowe urge manufacturers of pet resin and packaging to refrain from introductions of degradable additivecontaining products until data is made available for review and verification so we can better understand these products and their potential ramifications,&rdquo said the association.nevertheless, several plastics manufacturers are forging ahead with plans to introduce degradable additives into their products.in the us, several companies are marketing degradable pet for bottle applications planet green bottle is using an oxodegradable technology while enso is marketing a system that it claims is triggered by microbial action.last month, mexican food producer bimbo group said it will rollout a newly developed alumimiumcoated multilayer pe film based on the d2w oxodegradable additive technology marketed by ukbased symphony environmental technologies. the new film will be implemented across all metallised film applications by the first quarter of 2011, says the mexican company.symphony environmental defends the use of degradable additives. commercial director michael stephen told european plastics news its technology has not been developed for plastics that can be picked up and recycled but for those that cannot.&ldquowhat we are offering is a low cost insurance against the plastic getting into the environment,&rdquo he says.the company also released a statement replying to eupr, saying the european organisation has a &ldquomisunderstanding&rdquo of the technology.symphony says oxobiodegradable plastic will selfdestruct in a much shorter time than nondegradable plastic in the open environment, without leaving behind methane or fragments of petropolymers.it says that eupr should instead be concerned with hydrobiodegradable plastics, compostable plastics and cropbased bioplastics, all of which it says compromise a normal oilbased recycling process.us firm planet green claims to be &ldquooverwhelmed&rdquo by the interest in its revert technology, which is developed by ukbased masterbatch producer wells plastics.company founder and director of corporate development patrick rooney says planet green is dealing with the 76 of plastic bottles that are not recycled.&ldquoour oxobiodegradable bottles are now being tested or evaluated by brand owners globally they revert back to nature in 10 to 20 years,&rdquo he says. 
