4 ms·

It looks like this is using lignin as the food stock to make traditional plastics like abs and friends. Super cool, but definitely not addressing bio persistenc

It looks like this is using lignin as the food stock to make traditional plastics like abs and friends. Super cool, but definitely not addressing bio persistence of those plastics

moss2 2y ago
Are you saying this new plastic will also clog up our oceans?
- bjelkeman-again 2y ago
  > Biodegradable plastics only biodegrade in specific environments and under certain conditions, often generated in industrial composting facilities. https://scientificadvice.eu/wp-content/uploads/SAM_Summary-Factsheets-A4_Biodegradability_of_plastics-042022.pdf https://scientificadvice.eu/wp-content/uploads/SAM_Summary-F...
- jamescrowley 2y ago
  Unfortunately, quite possibly. Bio-based plastics are not necessarily any more biodegradable than their fossil fuel based counterparts.
giantg2 2y ago
Aren't the plasticizing chemicals also more of a problem than the base material?
- carterschonwald 2y ago
  The plasticizing chemicals are largely the monomers of the polymers we consider plastics. So they’re not an additive but rather a fundamental monomer in these polymer chains. Eg bpa is per se the fundamental monomer of vanilla polycarbonate, along with vanilla epoxy chemistry. The frustrating thing is that eg the bpa substitutes that are used in alternative polymer chemistry to create polycarbonate analogues are chemically similar to bpa and have very high probability of demonstrating similar health issues once relevant science / public health research is supported. Though basically every single plastic monomer has been demonstrated itself to be estrogenic in vitro studies. Even when limited to concentrations that would come from leaching via water or alcohols.
isodev 2y ago
Removing reliance on oil for the creation of those plastics already sounds like a huge leap forward. Not as good as finding an alternative to plastics all together, but certainly cutting down on drilling and dependence on oil countries. Who knows, maybe once BigOil is out of the picture, policy and solutions to microplastics would be more feasible.
- ZeroGravitas 2y ago
  It's also effectively carbon sequestration. Which often gets claimed for plastics, which are generally digging up fossil carbon so even best case scenario is break even, whereas this is carbon extracted from atmosphere by the tree.

It looks like this is using lignin as the food stock to make traditional plastics like abs and friends. Super cool, but definitely not addressing bio persistence of those plastics

moss2 2y ago

Are you saying this new plastic will also clog up our oceans?

bjelkeman-again 2y ago
> Biodegradable plastics only biodegrade in specific environments and under certain conditions, often generated in industrial composting facilities. https://scientificadvice.eu/wp-content/uploads/SAM_Summary-Factsheets-A4_Biodegradability_of_plastics-042022.pdf https://scientificadvice.eu/wp-content/uploads/SAM_Summary-F...
jamescrowley 2y ago
Unfortunately, quite possibly. Bio-based plastics are not necessarily any more biodegradable than their fossil fuel based counterparts.

giantg2 2y ago

Aren't the plasticizing chemicals also more of a problem than the base material?

carterschonwald 2y ago
The plasticizing chemicals are largely the monomers of the polymers we consider plastics. So they’re not an additive but rather a fundamental monomer in these polymer chains. Eg bpa is per se the fundamental monomer of vanilla polycarbonate, along with vanilla epoxy chemistry. The frustrating thing is that eg the bpa substitutes that are used in alternative polymer chemistry to create polycarbonate analogues are chemically similar to bpa and have very high probability of demonstrating similar health issues once relevant science / public health research is supported. Though basically every single plastic monomer has been demonstrated itself to be estrogenic in vitro studies. Even when limited to concentrations that would come from leaching via water or alcohols.

isodev 2y ago

Removing reliance on oil for the creation of those plastics already sounds like a huge leap forward. Not as good as finding an alternative to plastics all together, but certainly cutting down on drilling and dependence on oil countries. Who knows, maybe once BigOil is out of the picture, policy and solutions to microplastics would be more feasible.

ZeroGravitas 2y ago
It's also effectively carbon sequestration. Which often gets claimed for plastics, which are generally digging up fossil carbon so even best case scenario is break even, whereas this is carbon extracted from atmosphere by the tree.