
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, February 2, 1991                   TAG: 9102020325
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

REPORT: PAPER CUPS WORSE THAN FOAM

Environmentalists may be carrying plastic-bashing too far, says a study by a Canadian chemistry professor who now thinks paper cups are harder on the planet than those of plastic.

The assumption-busting report is in Science magazine. It comes from Martin B. Hocking, a scientist from British Columbia - home of a huge lumber and paper industry.

Hocking concludes that paper uses up more raw materials, including petroleum; requires more energy for steam and machinery; dumps more pollution into water supplies; takes up more space in landfills and is more likely to pollute landfills. Furthermore, plastic foams used today rarely contain the chlorofluorocarbons, or CFCs, which scientists say endanger the ozone layer. - San Francisco Chronicle

by CNB