Developed by researchers from China's Northeast Forestry University, the bamboo plastic can biodegrade in soil within 50 days and offers a pathway towards sustainable plastic alternatives.
I would recommend going and actually looking at a stack of paper cups. They are pretty much universally in a plastic bag.
Also, those cardboard (or even paper) boxes that printer paper come in? They get put in larger cardboard boxes and crates… which are generally wrapped in glorified plastic wrap before they get loaded into those metal trucks. And often stay wrapped on their pallets at the warehouse until they are set for their final destination.
And, to be clear: That isn’t necessarily a bad thing. It is effectively the idea behind electric cars. Move the pollution/recycling burden away from the end user and keep it at the distribution center/power plant where more expensive efforts can be done to reduce waste/pollution. And… much like with “clean coal”, the end result tends to be dumpsters full of plastic on their way to the landfill because recycling is effort.
But the idea is sound. Use the more robust polymers for shipping and long term protection. I just… still think 50 days is too little for anything even remotely close to an end user without a LOT of extra coatings (for example: Those paper milk cartons tend to have a LOT of wax… or polymers) which kind of defeat the purpose.
I would recommend going and actually looking at a stack of paper cups. They are pretty much universally in a plastic bag.
Also, those cardboard (or even paper) boxes that printer paper come in? They get put in larger cardboard boxes and crates… which are generally wrapped in glorified plastic wrap before they get loaded into those metal trucks. And often stay wrapped on their pallets at the warehouse until they are set for their final destination.
And, to be clear: That isn’t necessarily a bad thing. It is effectively the idea behind electric cars. Move the pollution/recycling burden away from the end user and keep it at the distribution center/power plant where more expensive efforts can be done to reduce waste/pollution. And… much like with “clean coal”, the end result tends to be dumpsters full of plastic on their way to the landfill because recycling is effort.
But the idea is sound. Use the more robust polymers for shipping and long term protection. I just… still think 50 days is too little for anything even remotely close to an end user without a LOT of extra coatings (for example: Those paper milk cartons tend to have a LOT of wax… or polymers) which kind of defeat the purpose.