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Will biodegradable plastics solve plastic waste eventually? What are the main blockers stopping this from happening sooner rather than later?
by dharma1 8y ago
Will biodegradable plastics solve plastic waste eventually?
What are the main blockers stopping this from happening sooner rather than later?
- ekianjo 8y agoCosts, and the properties of different kind of plastics. There are thousands of different polymers used to make plastics, so just using an umbrella name for them all is not helpful to understand what they are.
- Nasrudith 8y agoAlso isn't biodegradability technically a feature in opposition to at least some of the uses like sanitary uses? Since by definition you don't want bacteria to be able to make it through. Granted for most applications "only" one hundred years would be more than sufficient.
- jazzyjackson 8y agoYou can search for "PLA vs ABS" - biodegradable vs permanent plastics and the main players in 3D printing so there's a lot written for a laymen audience about their pros and cons. LEGO is trying really hard to introduce biodegradable plastics into their product line and have written about the struggle to produce something that is as permanent as they want it to be (so you can hand your LEGOs down to your grandchildren) while making them from plant sources, which is different, but related. But basically all the resin / petro plastics win out in strength, durability, UV resistance, etc etc -- so there's a lot of products that can be made from bioplastics but you won't see fiberglass boat hulls being composted anytime soon.