After reading an article in a journal about the biodegradable polymers, specifically which way is better the way of biodegrading or recycling my opinion on bioplastics has changed. Here’s a link to a similar article
Excerpt:
The belief that bioplastics will reduce the amount of waste in the oceans may not even come true. Just because plastics are made from plants does not automatically make them easily degradable in marine environments, Escobar emphasizes. “Bio-PE and Bio-PET are for example not biodegradable, same as their petroleum-based counterparts.” Bioplastics and biomaterials have however one clear advantage: They help to reduce the fossil fuel dependency of highly industrialized regions. The scientists conclude that if governments really want to protect the environment, they should rather pursue a different strategy: It makes more sense to use plastic sparingly and to ensure that it is actually recycled.
I guess I’m just slow and you guys probably already knew that…
I think it’s more about arriving together than to see who’s got the right direction. I also think a pluralistic approach helps humanity in general discover the right direction. If we never research alternatives we might miss a really good one :)
The issue is the time, as it is always against us. Unfortunately the research in this field is extremely slow and lopsided, as you know very few people would care about something they can’t even imagine, things like the “biosphere”, the “synergistic totality that made humans possible in the first place”, take out one element and the whole system will fall apart, which is very probable path at this point.
I’m not even talking about nuclear war scenario, it’s not something you want to think about.
My point is we should be on guard against the profiteers misinforming and manipulating research to their own petty advantages.
Without having read the complete article you put as link, I think (only opinion) that there is another part of the story: recycling plastic is not a good idea either.
Plastic is a not-very-noble material formed by very long molecules. Every time you prepare it (for ex via heating), the molecules are broken more and more, making it less “useful”. For most applications recycled plastic cannot be used: it cannot be used as food container (could be contaminated or leave particles on the food), it cannot be used for injection molding (which is one of the broadest ways of building stuff out of plastic: a project was trying to introduce 10% of recycled plastic in an injection mold car part&they didn’t succeed and went to use only new plastic), and mainly the properties of the plastic will be worse: melt earlier, degrade quicker, break more easily… Who wants that recycled plastic? I think there is a very limited choice of where you can use recycled plastic, when compared to all uses of new plastic. Let me say it the other way round: most of the uses of plastic cannot be substituted by recycled plastic.
So no, I think recycling plastic is a bad idea.
Recycling metal or glass, by the way, is a good idea: wash, melt and reuse again. That is why it is algo a good idea to use those materials instead.
Sorry this is higly opinionated, if someone finds an article explaining this better I would love to read it.
No one should be afraid to voice their opinion, after all it is an opinion. You’re right plastic is not fully recyclable at this moment and the foreseeable future, the gist of the article and the research done was that full and complete recyclability has to be the goal, it’s all about carbon neutrality.
The bioplastic that is not made from the “leftover” material can be as harmful as it requires land for it to be “grown” only then processed and finally shipped, and not only that, the bioplastic needs heat and won’t be able to biodegrade in the oceans, behaving in the same way as petroleum plastic. My point is to be careful of gimmicky pseudo-environmental marketing slogans without doing your own research.
