Plastic: Is there an alternative material that can be used to replace plastic (a bio-degradable material?)?

Question

Spent the last few day's noticing how much plastic I have in my house: bathroom cupboards, kitchen cupboards, children's toys, council bins ....list goes on! If this material is difficult to dispose of why are we using it? Is there an alternative material?

Answer 1

The term biodegradable means that a substance is able to be broken down into simpler substances by the activities of living organisms, and therefore is unlikely to persist in the environment. There are many different standards used to measure biodegradability, with each country having its own. The requirements range from 90 per cent to 60 per cent decomposition of the product within 60 to 180 days of being placed in a standard composting environment.

The reason traditional plastics are not biodegradable is because their long polymer molecules are too large and too tightly bonded together to be broken apart and assimilated by decomposer organisms. However, plastics based on natural plant polymers derived from wheat or corn starch have molecules that are readily attacked and broken down by microbes.
magine how good things would be if plastics could be biodegradable.
Plastics can be produced from starch!
Starch is a natural polymer. It is a white, granular carbohydrate produced by plants during photosynthesis and it serves as the plant's energy store. Cereal plants and tubers normally contain starch in large proportions. Starch can be processed directly into a bioplastic but, because it is soluble in water, articles made from starch will swell and deform when exposed to moisture, limiting its use. This problem can be overcome by modifying the starch into a different polymer. First, starch is harvested from corn, wheat or potatoes, then microorganisms transform it into lactic acid, a monomer. Finally, the lactic acid is chemically treated to cause the molecules of lactic acid to link up into long chains or polymers, which bond together to form a plastic called polylactide (PLA).
PLA can be used for products such as plant pots and disposable nappies. It has been commercially available since 1990, and certain blends have proved successful in medical implants, sutures and drug delivery systems because of their capacity to dissolve away over time. However, because PLA is significantly more expensive than conventional plastics it has failed to win widespread consumer acceptance.

http://www.visionengineer.com/env/biode_plastic.php
http://www.science.org.au/nova/061/061key.htm

Answer 2

What about the danger that comes from plastic being made with a synthetic estrogen? There have been studies at the University of Missouri in Columbia that say when plastic is heated up, it releases estrogen. This is bad when people use plastic in the microwave and ingest extra estrogen. Or when plastic is heated up during decomposition. It's bad stuff, but there's not yet an easy replacement for it.

Answer 3

Absolutely, its a product that is soy based and looks/feels just like plastic. In fact Henry Ford was the one who sort of helped invent this. During the war, a lot of people were out of work, including farmers, so he decided to make plastic parts for his cars that were soy based. The first part made? The gear-shift knob! This employed farmers and he still got his parts.
He was a brilliant man, too bad his son's F'd up his company.

Answer 4

The reason of using traditional plastics? Oil magnates. They don’t want we to use other sources of materials instead oil. The biggest world prostitute – Green Peace even trying to forbid production of PVC because it’s consists about 25% from chlorine! And its require less quantity of oil than PE, for example. So, such polymers as PLA and cellulose nitrate couldn’t be in a large output.

Answer 5

There is always alternative materials. Do you remember the returnable soda pop bottles ? Remember wax paper milk cartons ? The problem is plastic is just so easy to use. It is lightweight , strong , flexible ,clear , the list goes on of advantages. Part of the problem is the alternative materials is just more expensive than plastic.

Answer 6

If the plastic was burned in a gas fired boiler for the generation of electricity it would turn to CO2 and enter the earth's plant recycling.

Answer 7

some supermarkets already use bio degradable plastics for carrier bags

Answer 8

Brazilian mahogany

Answer 9

Why get rid of plastic...simple keep reusing it through recycling.

Answer 10

Wood and metal worked well for a very long time.