What are bioplastics?
Bioplastics are 100% organism-based plastics. These unfortunately cost almost twice as much as plastics ($3 per sheet) but, can be mass-produced like plastics. Bioplastics are biodegrade easily because they are made of plants and can help improve soil. We can put compounds to make the bioplastic resistant to things like heat or last longer. These compounds could also possibly hurt the environment.
Where you might see bioplastics:You might see bioplastics in grocery stores, especially in the water bottle section, or in other various sections. When looking for bioplastics make sure you see that the box says it is biodegradable. |
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How bioplastics could effect jobs:Our economy can go up because of bioplastic production. Our economy will rise because of stocks rising. Bioplastics will create more jobs and highlight the importance of specialized jobs in making 100% pure vegetable vinegar and other products. |
We need to use bioplastics because plastics can hurt animals and they pollute air. Plastics fill up landfills and take about 1,000 years to degrade. While this is true Bioplastics take only a couple of years to breakdown and don't pollute and hurt micro-organisms that much.
It's time to actYou can act by petitioning the government or letting others know about this safe way to replace plastic too. |
Bioplastic (see above) made from starch. Source: Wikimedia Commons (taken from The Truth about Bioplastics: https://phys.org/news/2017-12-truth-bioplastics.html).
Problem with making them
As mentioned earlier, bioplastic are expensive to make, taxes may go up or you might have to pay a bit more for bioplastics. We will also have to build more factories. This is a bulk-increasing industry meaning factories might be closer or farther away from where products are bought.
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Whats the catch with using Bioplastics
Bioplastic degrades based on certain factors like moist air, good soil, and enough organisms that are decomposers. These also still emit CO2 (carbon dioxide) like plastics.
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