You are grossly oversimplifying the issues. You're referring to Polylactic Acid (PLA) which is made from corn and biodegradable. Except it only biodegrades whe

You are grossly oversimplifying the issues. You're referring to Polylactic Acid (PLA) which is made from corn and biodegradable. Except it only biodegrades when eaten by bacteria that only lives in soil. Meaning: If plastic made from PLA ends up in waterways, the oceans, etc it won't degrade there and actually just breaks down into smaller parts creating the exact same sort of problem as microbeads (except PLA doesn't last nearly as long as other plastics regardless). The other problem is that bioplastics have lower glass transition temperatures than, say, PET or ABS which is what most plastic products are made from. So you're not going to be using PLA in a car dashboard, for example since it would deform rather quickly on a hot summer's day. "But there's high-temperature PLA now!" Yes, yes there is. You know how they make it "high temperature"? By adding fossil oil-based chemicals to the polymer. This process results in PLA that leaves residues after degrading. It's similar to "wood fill" or "bronze fill" filament in that a certain percentage of it is PLA whereas the rest is the usual does-not-break-down-ever stuff. Better? Yes. A long-term solution? Not really. ...and for reference, we do subsidize bioplastics to the tune of billions of dollars every year: https://farm.ewg.org/progdetail.php?fips=00000&progcode=corn https://farm.ewg.org/progdetail.php?fips=00000&progcode=corn PLA and most other bioplastics are made from corn husks. "Wait: I thought it was pretty much all made from corn?" Nope! There's a teeny tiny percentage of bioplastics made from algae. Now there's the future!