> There was life before plastic - it used wood, glass, metal, and natural fabric. Technically speaking, latex and even silk are plastics, as are traditional pr

> There was life before plastic - it used wood, glass, metal, and natural fabric. Technically speaking, latex and even silk are plastics, as are traditional products made from plant oils, like linoleum. We've been relying on them for millennia. "Plastics" has taken on a connotation similar to "GMO", intrinsically harmful by implication, in contrast to labels like "natural" or "organic" where the implication is they're harmless or healthy. But it's all just language games. There's often no meaningful distinction that can be made between "synthetic" products and "natural" products, and it's common for "natural" products to have safety profiles no less worrisome, if not more worrisome, then their synthetic counter parts. For example, "natural" neonicotinoid pesticides. There's alot more diversity in synthetic products, of course, though even the term "synthetic" relies on some very fuzzy line drawing. The substantive aspects of the debate can be reduced to arguments over the pace of progress, risk, etc, which have little to with whether something is "natural" or "synthetic", "organic" or "plastic". These labels are mere rhetorical instruments.