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The plastic celluloid slightly predates the beginning of crude oil extraction. Plastics can be made starting with non-petroleum chemicals, such as cellulose. S
by Merrill 7y ago
The plastic celluloid slightly predates the beginning of crude oil extraction. Plastics can be made starting with non-petroleum chemicals, such as cellulose.
See also Henry Ford's plastic car made from soybeans, wheat, and corn, and designed to run on hemp fuel. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soybean_car https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soybean_car However, making cars from foodstuffs may be inconsistent with feeding 10 billion people.
- swiley 7y agoUntil we find a way to economically cleave the ether bond in cellulose it’s more or less a byproduct of food production and can’t be used for a whole lot else. (edit: I meant anything food related, obviously you can make paper, rayon etc. out of it.) What starts to encroach on the biomass used for food is when you start using the sugars (producing ethanol etc) which is what would be used to make plastics (like PE) that are currently made from oil.