[photo: Rider Thompson]Although we prefer traditional wood and metal clothes hangers, our budget dictates a closet full of plastic ones from Target. But we're always looking to reduce our use of plastic items for environmental and political reasons. So we're enthused about the prospect of these Earthsaver clothing hangers, made from 100% U.S. grown corn.
The unusual shape is attributed to a new a "heavy shirt" design that supposedly holds clothing better than conventional hangers. For $3.50 for a set of five at Walmart (neither Merrick nor Walmart have additional information about the product, nor are they available online for purchase), these are neither prohibitively expensive nor the 99 cent bargain bin variety, but there is some debate of whether these hangers are even ecologically sound as a recyclable:
Corn based plastic is only compostable in municipal composting facilities with temperatures that reach 140ยบ for 10 consecutive days, an environment not possible in home composting.
Most of the country does not have municipal composting programs.
Should bio-plastic get into regular plastic recycling it will foul the entire batch and render it unrecyclable.
If bio-plastic is not composted in a landfill will last as long as oil based plastic (1000+ years).
Corporate agriculture methods have some of the highest toxicity rates from pesticides and nitrogen fertilizers.
Sadly the time is not right for this new material. We hope in the years ahead, however, that it will be.
Gary Barker
President
GreenHeart Global
www.greenheartglobal.com
[via Sustainable is Good]
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Comments (5)
get wood ones at ikea. they are super cheap.
Bonus: Edible clothes hangers.
I'm glad you added the info about whether these are in fact bio-friendly. Big Agra loves corn...that means the rest of us should be asking questions about it.
Plastic hangers might be made from recycled plastic. I've had mine for years, I expect I will have them until I die. Wood might be better but when I was buying hangers I couldn't afford wood (no Ikea then). If you find yourself with extra plastic hangers, donate them to a thrift store or sell them in a yard sale. That will keep them out of the landfill.
I can't see how corn products are much better than oil products. Everyone seems to be pushing them and I think it's a terrible step in the wrong direction.
Who throws out plastic hangers? I've never yet had one break.
Corn is a renewable resource; oil isn't. It's also possible to put more acreage into corn than is now used for it, so expanding the supply is simple. If you believe in "peak oil," using less oil is absolutely critical.
That's not a vote for these hangers or for agribusiness in general, just a summary of the reasoning.