I am very much sympathetic to nature conservation, decarbonization, degrowth etc. but really, there are more important considerations at this very moment than shaving few kgs of CO2 by ditching milk.
And, as much as some powers try to convince us, not everything can be reduced to carbon footprint.
But then I got out in the real world, and noticed plastics just falling apart all around -- including stuff that is not intended to fail and which is otherwise still within its useful life.
Like: One year, I bought some used pickle buckets from a local burger joint to use as planters. Within 6 months, they were falling apart: It was easy to break them apart in chunks with my bare hands.
Or the plastics used for cars: They often eventually turn brittle and fall apart, whether interior or exterior. Plastic lenses on USDM cars turn foggy and useless; some types of wire insulation disintegrate. (If we want to talk about environmental cost, can we also talk about the impact of building a new car?)
In some areas, we once used polybutylene water pipes. These tended to fail and damage homes. There was even a billion-dollar lawsuit about it in the 1990s. It was not good.
Meanwhile, a red Solo cup or a plastic drinking straw, once landfilled, will be there a very long time -- but eventually, they will also decompose.
And the UHMW cutting boards I use in my kitchen will probably outlive my grandchildren's grandchildren before they start falling apart on their own accord.
Plastic isn't always forever, even though some people seem fond of saying that it is. Plastic isn't necessarily cheap, either, even though "cheap plastic" is a common expression -- some plastics are very expensive and resoundingly durable (and there's only partial overlap of these two qualities on a Venn diagram).
The truth is somewhere in the middle, but is rather nuanced and variable and difficult to pin down in absolutes.
But plastic (as a noun) does, broadly speaking, have the material property of being plastic (as an adjective).
I've said before that we need a short term plastic that completely dissolves into harmless organic compounds that can then be forgotten in nature with no ill effect. 13 weeks is just about right!
> Plastic production has climbed from 2 million tonnes in 1950 to 475 million tonnes by 2022, roughly equivalent to the weight of 250 million cars.
That's 60 kg/person/year of plastic, which is a lot. Or about 4800 kg for a person living 70 years. Obviously, there is wide variation in this number across the human population.
I’m hoping this is a first step toward using some other protein(s). There are some fairly high protein plants like chickpeas and soy that are less intensive to produce than milk.
1) Heat 1 cup milk, not to boiling.
2) Add 4 tablespoons vinegar. Stir for a few minutes.
3) Strain out curds. Squeeze to remove as much liquid as possible.
4) Form into a shape or press into a mold, let dry.
It's in that small category of objects that seems like plastic, but are still edible. Tastes bad, though.
sounds like bakelite to me. you can get a disposable polymer from polylactide as well, and it can be obtained from silage (so-called green refinery, although the term seems to have been broadened in the last decade)
PLA is also biodegradable and cheap but it does not biodegrade that fast, certainly does not vanish in 13 weeks. Im not sure what the usecase is here but I'm sure it could have some uses.
Part of the problem with waste management is that we don't really put it in the soil. Your household garbage is mostly biodegradable, but if it ends up buried in a lined pit under tons of other garbage, even paper and orange peels will probably sit there for centuries. I'm not sure it makes much of a difference what kinds or quantities of plastic end up buried in the landfill.
I think the solutions here are more on the supply side than the landfill side. The question there is what are we trying to solve.
Energy use? Most alternative packaging materials are energy-intensive too, so it's less about plastic and more about retail and consumer preferences to have everything individually wrapped and packaged in bags or boxes with colorful graphics, nutrition information, and so on.
Environmental pollution? There, the problem is the plastic that doesn't end up in a landfill. Including our "recycling" shipped overseas.
Any article about biodegradable plastics should start with advantages over cellophane/cellulose.
People have figured out how to make it a hundred years ago, it's already used for food packaging, known properties, abundant and cheap - made from trees / other plants.
The article starts as if it's some breakthrough miracle which is unheard of. I can literally just buy compostable bags for organic waste made of corn starch on Amazon. It's already a product.
Journalist demonstrate less awareness than 8B LLM. Scientist tells you about a new plastic? Ask them how it's better than what's already on the market.
Products that involve clay as an ingredient tend to have issues with lead contamination (along with other heavy metals) as it likes to absorb them, and the sources are highly variable.
Plastic is a permanent disaster for the environment. Trees are planted, CO2 will go away, temperature can fall, but the great Pacific plastic patch with stay for thousands of years. Only nuclear can be worse. What awes me is that with 1000 worth of plastic someone can destroy a beautiful beach. All recyclable plastic going to the oceans is crime to humanity. And the greedy xxlionaires will not give up the convenience and price of plastic to put their products inside. The Japanese bacteria that presumably eat plastic are dumped to the ground.
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[ 4.7 ms ] story [ 54.3 ms ] threadMilk protein costs around 95 kg of CO2-equivalent emissions per kg of protein, which is apparently what was used in the production of this plastic [1]
[0] https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S002203022...
[1] https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/ghg-per-protein-poore
And, as much as some powers try to convince us, not everything can be reduced to carbon footprint.
But oil? That’s fine of course. Completely natural stuff.
/scnr
I know - long lived plastics are bad. We need some kind of middle ground thats as cheap as the current plastics and doesn't last as long.
Well then it's not plastic is it? Plastic's defining characteristic is that it is not decomposable
But then I got out in the real world, and noticed plastics just falling apart all around -- including stuff that is not intended to fail and which is otherwise still within its useful life.
Like: One year, I bought some used pickle buckets from a local burger joint to use as planters. Within 6 months, they were falling apart: It was easy to break them apart in chunks with my bare hands.
Or the plastics used for cars: They often eventually turn brittle and fall apart, whether interior or exterior. Plastic lenses on USDM cars turn foggy and useless; some types of wire insulation disintegrate. (If we want to talk about environmental cost, can we also talk about the impact of building a new car?)
In some areas, we once used polybutylene water pipes. These tended to fail and damage homes. There was even a billion-dollar lawsuit about it in the 1990s. It was not good.
Meanwhile, a red Solo cup or a plastic drinking straw, once landfilled, will be there a very long time -- but eventually, they will also decompose.
And the UHMW cutting boards I use in my kitchen will probably outlive my grandchildren's grandchildren before they start falling apart on their own accord.
Plastic isn't always forever, even though some people seem fond of saying that it is. Plastic isn't necessarily cheap, either, even though "cheap plastic" is a common expression -- some plastics are very expensive and resoundingly durable (and there's only partial overlap of these two qualities on a Venn diagram).
The truth is somewhere in the middle, but is rather nuanced and variable and difficult to pin down in absolutes.
But plastic (as a noun) does, broadly speaking, have the material property of being plastic (as an adjective).
That's 60 kg/person/year of plastic, which is a lot. Or about 4800 kg for a person living 70 years. Obviously, there is wide variation in this number across the human population.
Part of the problem with waste management is that we don't really put it in the soil. Your household garbage is mostly biodegradable, but if it ends up buried in a lined pit under tons of other garbage, even paper and orange peels will probably sit there for centuries. I'm not sure it makes much of a difference what kinds or quantities of plastic end up buried in the landfill.
I think the solutions here are more on the supply side than the landfill side. The question there is what are we trying to solve.
Energy use? Most alternative packaging materials are energy-intensive too, so it's less about plastic and more about retail and consumer preferences to have everything individually wrapped and packaged in bags or boxes with colorful graphics, nutrition information, and so on.
Environmental pollution? There, the problem is the plastic that doesn't end up in a landfill. Including our "recycling" shipped overseas.
This is why nothing happens there, yet common folks receive higher and higher burden.
People have figured out how to make it a hundred years ago, it's already used for food packaging, known properties, abundant and cheap - made from trees / other plants.
The article starts as if it's some breakthrough miracle which is unheard of. I can literally just buy compostable bags for organic waste made of corn starch on Amazon. It's already a product.
Journalist demonstrate less awareness than 8B LLM. Scientist tells you about a new plastic? Ask them how it's better than what's already on the market.