What began as a watershed victory for environmental activism has grown into a month-long observation of global proportions: April 22nd's Earth Day has expanded into the April-long Earth Month.

Manufacturers could seek ways to collect and reprocess common waste streams and integrate them into existing supply chains, even offering consumers free return programs for their product waste.

Are consumers and businesses going to pay to recycle the waste they've been throwing away for years?

As marketable as biodegradable and compostable plastics like PLA are, there's often more to these claims than meets the eye. For example, in most cases biodegradable bioplastics will only break down in a high-temperature industrial composting facility, not your average household compost bin.

Are timeless principles guiding the change, or are we going into the forests of the future without a compass? Each of us can only answer for ourselves, but much will depend on this.