Comment on If we replace most plastic with a non plastic alternative and would that really be better?
TranquilTurbulence@lemmy.zip 1 day ago
In the beginning, things would suck, because low prices come from economies of scale, and the petrochemical industry certainly has scale. Once you’ve ramped up glass, paper and metal packaging factories, it should be tolerable.
There are also new materials such as biodegradable plastic and even mycelia. That would be useful.
If we also ramp up various carbon capture technologies, you could technically turn that carbon into plastics, so you won’t need any more oil. Obviously, that wouldn’t solve the climate crisis. You need CCS for that. Probably not going to happen within the next century, but it’s technically possible.
spankmonkey@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Pretty sure that is bullshit just like how ‘easy’ plastic is to recycle.
Ephera@lemmy.ml 1 day ago
I think, it’s possible to find alternative materials which behave similar to plastic in certain use-cases.
But yeah, I can’t see a one-for-one replacement happening. It’s part of the appeal of plastic, that it does not degrade.
TranquilTurbulence@lemmy.zip 1 day ago
There’s plenty of variety within that term. Also, recycling some of them requires very precise conditions.
Nurse_Robot@lemmy.world 1 day ago
It’s worth looking into, the research seems promising
spankmonkey@lemmy.world 1 day ago
It exists to perpetuate the the continued production of plastic as a whole, just like ‘clean coal’ and vaping and recycling lies exist to make people fine with consuming all of the similar stuff that isn’t even pretending to not kill us.
skullgiver@popplesburger.hilciferous.nl 1 day ago
It exists, if just isn’t a solid replacement for normal plastic. It’ll crumble to dust and dissolve before you can actually get any use out of the material.