Beware the Deadly Juice Box

A follow-up to the recent post about the yeas and nays around composting cardboard. While there’s not yet a lot of great science about the compostability of dyes, inks, and coatings found on cardboard, there is a little science on the petroleum-based coatings on stuff like juice cartons, takeout containers, paper plates, and so on. These nominally disposable/recyclable paper-based containers are usually meant to hold liquids or wet stuff, so you can feel the plasticky or waxy coating.

According to one study (from 2011 and updated since), while the underlying paper product may compost, the coating itself will eventually break down into microplastics. More recent studies like this one confirm the presence of microplastics in compost while admitting the lack of standard measurements makes it difficult to compare findings.

But overall this is of course not good, as compost is an ideal way for microplastics to enter whatever ecosystem the compost is used for, theoretically traveling happily through plants up the food chain to ultimately reside in your lungs for the rest of your life. Trashing plastic-coated paper is all most people can do, as the plastic coating typically makes them ineligible for recycling (though some facilities can handle such products in with the plastic recycling, rather than the paper recycling).

None of this should be confused with the admittedly confusing issue of allegedly compostable, biodegradable, and/or bio-based “plastic,” which I’ll attempt to untangle in a future post after more research and a stiff drink.

Unrelated note, as one might have deduced from the photo at the top of the newsletter, immediately above is the final photo of the yard pumpkins (previously and previously) before they were consigned to the bin. Squirrels are true monsters. Rest in pieces.

In a flurry of virtue signaling provoked by Recent Events, I’ve reduced my online presence on platforms with objectionable management. I finally deleted my other dormant Substack publications and moved them here to beehiiv for archival purposes. The first is F&BQ&A, a series of interviews with people in the restaurant and hospitality business. This was a sentimental attempt to continue the similar work I’d done at Zagat Stories, which sadly ended when I left the company not long after its absorption by the JP Morgan Chase Banking Enthusiast Concern. Wasn’t expecting the bank to continue Zagat Stories, though it would have been nice of them not to expunge it from the internet, which they did. I assumed they’d eventually at least relaunch Zagat itself in some form, but guess that ain’t happening neither. Zero stars.

The other olde blogge is Royal Dispatch, which was a fun though exhausting Crusader Kings playthrough newsletter. So much incest and murder. Maybe someday I’ll figure out a way to make that worth doing again! (the newsletter, not the incest and murder.) Anyways, both these newsletters, plus Strange Work (the forerunner to this newsletter) are all now deleted from Substack, though I haven’t deleted my account there just in case I need it to access … something.

Similarly, I haven’t deleted my Twitter account though I have taken it private and ceased posting there. I recognize some people need to keep using Twitter, though my feeling is if you don’t need to, you should not.

I still use Facebook occasionally and strictly to connect with family and elder friends who don’t know How to Be anywhere else, and Instagram for the same reasons. My Tumblr account is also long dormant, not sure what to do with that one, though might someday try to at least crosspost the images somewhere. About the only place other than here I still actively post and engage is Bluesky, which while still lacking the heat of Prime Twitter has discovered its own vibe, mostly, and is becoming essential in its way, mostly. I managed to bulk import the bulk of my archival tweets there, which falls neatly into the “ask not if you can, but if you should” level of hubris. See you over there, maybe.