Group questions aseptic ban > Juice-box prohibition not thought out, biochemist says

While Maine grocery stores remove newly banned juice boxes from their shelves, a citizens’ group is questioning the process that led to the prohibition.

Dr. Kathryn Thompson, a nutritional biochemist at the University of New England in Biddeford and chairwoman of Maine Citizens for Environmental Studies, was in Bangor on Friday, the day before the law takes effect.

Maine is the first state to ban the popular aseptic packaging, a decision based on reported problems with recycling the boxes because of their multisubstance construction. The ban was concurrent with an expansion of Maine’s returnable-container law.

“We’re trying to reach out to the citizens of Maine to enlist their support,” she said, explaining the publicity campaign. The group, she said, also is concerned about whether the state has adequately studied assertions that paper bags are preferable to plastic ones. Stores currently may package items in plastic bags only on customer request.

Thompson admits she hasn’t fully studied the aseptic-packaging matter herself, and her organization isn’t asserting necessarily that the juice boxes are safe; rather, its members believe the issue wasn’t thoroughly studied before the law was passed.

“We’re concerned, basically, that good procedure was not followed,” she said. “There seems to be some good things about the packaging.”

One positive aspect is weight. Juice boxes are lighter than other containers, such as glass, and so require less energy to transport.

Thompson also suggests that the law contradicts itself by banning aseptic packaging for some products while allowing it for dairy products and apple juice. The ban makes life difficult for soy-milk drinkers, she said, because other forms of packaging are less convenient or effective.

Furthermore, aseptic packaging “can be recycled,” she said, pointing to states such as Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and New York, and the Canadian province of Ontario.

Those areas are experimenting with recycling the juice boxes, but the resulting product has received a lukewarm reception for environmentalists who say the “plastic wood” compound may have only limited demand.

But those are the kinds of issues Thompson says should have been explored more fully before the ban took effect.