Plastics are Made With Oil, and Plastic Bags Don’t Biodegrade
Oh dear. From Treehugger:
According to a recent nationwide online survey, 72 percent of the American public does not know that conventional plastic is made from petroleum products, primarily oil. Moreover, 40 percent of the respondents believe that plastic will biodegrade at some point. The survey was conducted by InsightExpress on behalf of Metabolix, a company that manufactures a biodegradable plastic made with corn. In their press release, Metabolix says “…Very few people realize that plastics are made from oil, further contributing to the problems of energy dependence, greenhouse gas emissions and depleting resources. In fact, nearly 10 percent of U.S. oil consumption - approximately 2 million barrels a day - is used to make plastic.
Despite the fact that petroleum-based plastic will never biodegrade, 40 percent of respondents believe that it will biodegrade underground, in home compost, in landfills, or in the ocean. Plastics will not biodegrade in any of these environments. In fact, the only way to rid the planet of existing plastic is by incineration in those cases where it can be recovered.”
Plastics Made of Plants « Our Descent Into Madness said,
June 17, 2007 at 12:44 pm
[...] plants to produce plastic on a large scale, thus lessening our dependence on oil (which currently plays a huge role in the manufacture of plastics). It is not clear yet, though, to me, that this process is altogether more energy efficient than [...]
angelica novak said,
May 5, 2008 at 9:18 am
you stink .