The city I live in has actually made some real, biodegradeable bags. These bags are used for all the food waste that gets thrown out and the idea is to make it into dirt and thus feed it back into Nature again :) The bags contain corn starch and are actually degradeable. I've several times seen holes appearing on the bags. Not because of sharp objects, but because the process of the rotting food in the bag made the bag start its own degration process. They actually degrade so fast that you have to change the bags at least once a week, unless you want rotten goo to spill out everywhere ofcourse... But I don't think anyone would like that tbh..
Seaweed, is it the material used by Coffee Bean for their latest edition straws? Curious though, as the straws seems to be somewhat jelly composition, solid hard without water, soft to quickly soluble with water +time
Wait, ordinary plastics that are simply TREATED with additives are considered "Biodegradable?" I thought that label was only reserved for actual bio-polymer plastics derived from Plants or Bacteria like PLA, at least I know that's the case here in the European Union. You can't call a plastic something "biodegradable" if it's still derived from oil
FrediFirethorn Hemp plastic is not going to work, for a good few reasons, mainly for the reason that you're gonna get a lot of food poisoning if you pack food and things that contain bacteria, that are normally kept out of the food through plastic, in hemp plastic. Glass the the solution here, not bio plastics.
He could have mentioned two related problems: mechanical degradation to nanoparticles (which end up in the food-chain and cause irritation/immune response) leaking plastizers: they can mess up our hormon-houshold and thus affect our development or simply make us ill. The problem is that 50-90% of our food and water are in contact with plastic.
Oh; this is old. It just popped up for some reason. The "Biodegradable" additives only speed up _UV_ catalyzed degradation from what I remember. This also tends to result in microplastic shards as things progress.
"Hey we have a hot new invention for you, it speeds up the process" "Is it tested?" "Not yet but it'll cool people down politically now so you should buy in" "Sold." Years pass. No testing is done, a brilliant person runs away with the cash.
To be fair. The video mentioned only one type of biodegradable plastic (unless I missed something. He does talk kinda fast), and there are a ton of different types of biodegradable plastics and other materials. The type of plastic mentioned might not have worked, but I don't think that means that none of them do.
My science class did a year long experiment to test biodegradable plastics. We buried a plastic bag, biodegradable plastic eating utensils, and organic matter in the ground near our school and waited to see how well each object decomposed. At the end of the school year we dug up everything and the only thing that actually decomposed was the organic stuff. Both the regular and "biodegradable" plastics didn't.
There are two types : biodegradable and compostable. The compostable ones are made of plant starch and will degrade in any environment and are the most environment friendly. The biodegradable ones are made of chemicals added with microorganisms and need special facilities to be degraded and leave residues. Biodegradable bags do not degrade properly if buried in the soil. Look for bags that says Compostable on the box.
In the late 80s, I tested a package of biodegradable garbage bags (for an elementary school science project) to see if they would degrade under various circumstances, like in sunlight, buried, in shade, etc. I concluded at the time that they didn't degrade in that time window, but might with more time. This video was interesting. I wish I had the foresight at the time to write down the ingredients. I am curious now.
Well as a matter of fact, i AM happy about the way scishow is now! I'm so glad you guys have gotten rid of that "progress bar" that would fill up as the host talks about a subject, it was driving me crazy!
waswestkan look at their older SciShow news vids and look where the topics are on the left hand side; there is a little "bar" that fills up that part of the screen as his talks.
Corn plastics are bioplastics(different from biodegradable plastics). Unlike biodegradable plastics, which are treated with synthetic additives, bioplastics are manufactured from organic material, so they can actually be compostable. Problem is though, they take alot of resources(agriculture which can otherswise be eaten) to create.
@@Nancy-uo9hk how many ears of corn does it take to make a dozen plastic bags? i dont think its that much, is it? but i dont know what else it takes to turn corn into plastic
Corn starch bags cost nearly 10 times the plastic bags which presents a weak business case for adoption. Problem is looking for a cheaper alternative. Packaging material is a cost to the company and they would like to keep it low.
@@Nancy-uo9hk not all bioplastics are biodegradable, either. Being a bioplastic just means that it's made from biological compounds; biodegradability depends on the final polymer structure of the plastic (crystallinity, molecular weight, stuff like that!)
I used to work at Target in Australia and we had biodegradable bags. I buried one to find out if they worked and sure enough in a few weeks it had disappeared. That was a few years ago and they've since gone back to normal plastic bags.
The thought that the Gulf Stream might be interrupted may be a bummer if you live in the US, but it's absolutely terrifying if you live in northern Norway. I live a degree north of the Arctic Circle, and if that stream of warm water wasn't heating the ocean here, we'd literally have Arctic temperatures. Also, I'm pretty sure such a sudden change in temperature would be devastating for the flora and fauna in the area.
I love all the scishow hosts, but there's definitely an added excitement to watching a hank episode. Especially a hank-talking-about-the-environment video.
There is a particular mall in my country uses biodegradable plastic bag.. and it really works after a month of storing it in the drawer for future used i notice that it becomes brittle over time and turned powdery over a period of time so i think it still works
Oh my god, OF COURSE they aren't biodegradable! Why is it that every "green" or "organic" claim from some company always turns out to be completely false?
Thanks Hank!! I really enjoyed this video and I finally understood how the warming climate change has an effect on making it more cold in the north! Also I'd love to learn more about other products that have a factor in climate change and the degradation of the environment. Like does modern day hairspray still have the same effects as back in the 50s? Keep up the good work!
What do you mean "no physical degradation"? When I happened to forget throwing away one of these grocery bags, it breaks apart into little flakes and eventually turns into dust. Do you mean that this dust does not degrade further? Or is it that you have different types of biodegradable bags in the U.S., than we have here in Europe?
Umm.. I'm not sure I understand. In certain parts of Europe (Poland, in my case) we've been using biodegradable plastic bags for a long time now. I have personally seen the older (~2yrs old) of these bags I have to start degrading (they first lose their horizontal bonds, turning into a hair-like mesh). Perhaps the study described here only investigated one type of biodegradable plastic?
Based on your description, I think the issue is it isn’t ‘degrading,’ it’s breaking. The chemical doesn’t change, the plastic just frays and becomes smaller bits. Aka, microplastics.
Hi! I like your bit on biodegradable plastic. I've recently been exposed to the notion that latex balloons are somehow safer for the environment because they, supposedly, degrade "as fast as an oakeaf". (Animals eating them and choking/dying aside) I'm wondering if you would do some digging, and a little SciShow, on the biodegradability of latex. I've seen good, reasonably supported, arguments on both sides. (I do have a bias: people release balloons in rememberance etc, and it's dangerous aerial litter. Balloon companies claim latex ones are biodegradable and therefore safer.)
You did a show about 2 years ago about why we need sleep. I was wondering if you could maybe do a show about the different stages of sleep and sleep cycles?
The part about biodegradable plastic is so wrong and inaccurate. 0:27 "plastic doesn't biodegrade" It depends on the polymer, mainly on the "backbone" (chainlinks). Many polyesters (especially polylactides, but not PET), PVOH, some polyamides and some polyurethanes are biodegradable. 0:39 "microorganisms can't eat plastics" partly true: in most cases they can not "eat" (assimilate) the polymer as it is, but they can break the polymer-chains of some plastics and assimilate pieces of them. 0:46 "by the suns UV-radiation" thats called oxo-degradation, we will come to that later. oxo-degradation is NOT biodegradation. 0:56 "treated with additives to biodegrade faster" no! it mainly depends on the backbone, additives can HELP to degrade faster 1:12 PE (pololefine) and PET (though a polyester) chains can normally not be biodegraded. thats why metals ar addet to induce oxo-degradation, wich needs UV-light and oxigen. this was already done, but not too successful: too much metal - material gets weak. too less metal: stable, but parts are too big to get assimilated by microorganisms. 1:28 "in containers" oxodegradation needs UV-light 2:03 "they use so-called biodegradable plastics in their packaging" if they want to call it biodegradable packaging, it has to fit ISO 13432 wich demands decay in less than 6 month. The method of mesuring the gasses is included in there too (in ISO 14855), so it was certainly NOT PE and PET what they sold as biodegradable. your video is uninformed and misleading, do some research next time please.
+Kevin Rosengold Very well explained. Congratulations. At this point, 475K viewers have seen a completely wrong video about "bioplastics", which is a shame....
Finally, someone who knows something. Toss the idea of abiotic or co-metabolic reactions and you have already lost 99.9% of people. Why does plastic exposed to ultraviolet light able to be degraded faster?
I love your shows! And I always give them a thumbs up, and I just noticed that it says at the moment of this message, that this program has had 986 views and 2,688 'thumbs up'.
David Jeffers Greenland is leaking massive nuclear waste into the Hudson Bay which over time can build up to cause the Victorian islands being essentially inhabitable.
David Jeffers Greenland is leaking massive nuclear waste into the Hudson Bay which over time can build up to cause the Victorian islands being essentially inhabitable.
remember invasive species? we'd have to make these things really tough to survive any where plastic is, they'd only help speed up the degradation a little bit and around the world their presence could and would upset dozens to hundreds of environmental niches, why not just recycle all the plastic we can since we are about to run out of oil
If we did, one day your car will fall off the wheels it was riding on when you brake. Pretty much every plastic is biodegradable with enough time and proper conditions. But the relatable answer is like why people at a buffet don't solely feast on the most pitch-white iceberg lettuce at the beginning of the trough line. There's better stuff.
+Seamus Spike I was wondering the same thing. My 3d Printer uses PLA (Polylactic Acid) plastic which has been touted as biodegradable. I did a bit of reading and it still requires certain processes to help break it down. One of it's biggest advantages is that it can be broken down and reconstituted into virgin PLA with no difference in quality.
+Jonny Hovenden It requires constant ~60°C for a week before it can be degraded. Easy in a specific composting environment, not so much in sea or soil.
Yes, but we're changing it faster than it's supposed to, which is having adverse effects on many things. See the SciShow videos "Mass Extinctions," and "Who will survive the 6th mass extinction." But if you don't "believe" in climate change, I don't have time to argue with you, except to say we're ruining the planet for ourselves and our descendants in more ways than just rising temperatures.
and we were actually showing signs of going into another ice age (scheduled in about 5 thousand years) but then in the 60s scientists began to notice that the Earth to get noticeably warmer, which they thought was odd. And now we have a huge amount of data showing why. Some places will become drier, some places will become colder and the Earth overall will be warmer.
Thank you, *SciShow.* I was wondering why biodegradable plastics wasn't as widespread as I had expected. Sure, some plastic parts you don't want to biodegrade, but food containers and plastic shopping bags we do. I'm saddened to now know why it's not a thing.
Can we just acknowledge how amazing this planet is? There are life forms here that recycle matter at the chemical level for use by life forms higher up the chain of complexity.
I think this upload is very misleading, if not not completely inaccurate. Selke et al's paper that has been cited only says that biodegradation promoting additives don't make a difference to the rate of biodegradation of plastics. Most of the biodegradable plastics you get in the store are not polyethylene or polyethene with additives, they are completely manufactured from plant based sources, like cellulose (cellophane) and starch. In USA, BPI certified plastics are generally 100% biodegradable... which does not necessarily mean compostable.. While biodegradable plastics do exist, they are more expensive, not all plastics have a biodegradable substitute. This video implies that all biodegradable plastics aren't biodegradable.
I am concerned that this video will create confusion among your viewers. Polylactic acid or polylactide (PLA) is biodegradable. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polylactic_acid It's used abundantly in 3D printing and I've always assumed it was biodegradable. PLA is also used to make biodegradable cups, mulch film for agriculture, packaging and the famous biodegradable bag for compost. This last one I am CERTAIN is biodegradable, since it starts to turn to mud if I don't take out the trash soon enough. I have no doubt about this research that was done on those other non-biodegradable plastics with additives that made fake claims. Yet, I don't recall ever seeing them anywhere or hearing about them before today. I am worried that viewers will watch your video and assume afterwards that all bio-plastics are the product of misleading advertising, which is not true. You should have made a distinction there. The result may be that those people may turn away from earth friendly materials, for fear of having been mislead. I suggest that you do an addendum video. Maybe a QQ about PLA. Just to set the record strait. I'm usually a big fan of SciShow, but I feel you dropped the ball on this one.
I had a plastic bag in a drawer for over 10 years. I finally decided to clean that drawer and found that plastic bag in pieces. When I tried to remove those pieces by hand, they were crumbling from just touch. Also they lost flexibility and mass which suggests, that this plastic bag indeed was degrading.
Except for Europe, there is hardly anywhere in the world where many people live north of 50 degrees. That's because north of 50 degrees it is brutally cold, except in western Europe. The Atlantic Ocean currents make Europe warmer than it should be that far north. If the Atlantic currents change then Europe will get much colder, and they won't be able to farm there, and people won't want to live in the cities, and it will devastate their economy.
Hey, I have really enjoyed the number of environment related videos lately; is there a chance that you could make a video about vegetarianism/veganism either about the science there within or the cultural taboos surrounding each? Or even just the science of food system processes. I would be really interested to see what you'd find and what your take would be. Thanks! And keep doing what you do. -Your fan
I don't know if things are different here in Europe or Finland more specifically, but I have never seem biodegradable plastic made of normal plastic with additives, All those I have seen on sale are made from maize and they at least degrade very quickly, almost too quickly since sometimes the bag seem to degrade before you have the time to take out your compost especially if you put wet stuff in it and then you don't take it out for over a weel
my project car had a plastic bag for in the back that was +10years old. I tried to pick it up and it disintegrated in my hands. flaked into a thousand little pieces. so I don't think this videos accurate.
Gordon Freeman they mention that in the video, but I think the part that Saucy is referring to being inaccurate is the "taking centuries." I have seen this happen to plastic bags left outside for a few days.
So, biodegradable plastics might not decompose as they should, but they ARE DIFFERENT to "regular" plastic bags. When cleaning out my family's house, I often came across bags which were in tatters, and just completely crumbled and fell apart when I tried to move them. These were ALWAYS bags that were labeled as being biodegradable. (Their environment being: dark and surrounded by other stuff from a house like other bags and books and random bits of paper, probably having been there for 5 years or so?). So they may not get broken down and turned into useful nutrients like the plan was, but they certainly DO breakdown into little bits faster then regular plastic bags.
The difficulty this result about plastic bags gives me, is that I've seen them biodegrade. I've left carrier bags in a store room by the window, and the biodegradable one largely crumbled part in my hand, like it was shredded.
Now, to my understanding, biodegradable plastic has to be processed a certain way before it biodegrades. You are not supposed to throw it on the ground, or into the landfill assuming its going to biodegrade. You are supposed to put it into a compost bin, and have it brought to the landfill where they process it (with other organics, not to be put in the landfill with garbage) to speed up the decomposition process.
***** predator animals track and hunt certain species just like early humans did. Back then we were not that special, only have created basic rudimentary tools and language. No I firmly believe that it was the environmental changes that truly killed those animals.
How much does plastic really contribute into the accumulation of greenhouse gases? I've read it is actually 1.3% only while 14% comes from space heating; 18% from recreation & leisure; 12% from hygiene and health; 13% from food & catering; and 13% from household wastes. Please correct if wrong.
+Rupert Von Pruft Plastic is affecting global cancer rates more than the atmosphere, plastic can dissolve into carcinogens in water and if we don't drink that water directly another animal or plant will and become carcinogenic itself and we'll eat that or something else higher on the food chain, so basically carcinogens are working up the food chain to us resulting in a higher cancer rate globally than it has ever been in history.
I have a question, what's the evolution behind the different blood types that everybody has? Not only the exact reason why we develop different, but how it all became the way as we know it. I'm really curious about that. Thanks
Why would we want plastics to biodegrade (and release methane)? Let's just keep burying the plastic (i.e. Carbon) and let the landfill act as a carbon store. We should focus on people discarding of their trash in the wrong places so it doesn't end up in the ocean.
seogoratjk Depends on what your goal is. If you want to sequester carbon, then burying the plastic (and really any high-carbon waste) deep enough that it doesn't meaningfully interact with the biosphere is actually a very workable idea. If your goal is to get the most use of the least amount of raw materials (which has it's own merits), then recycling is the way to go.
I might not be correct in terms of things being able to break down the plastic and absorb them, but in england plastic shopping bags that are biodegradable break into pieces after a year or so. I packed loads of things up in them, stored them away and when i went to get the bags they disintergrated into tiny pieces
If you guys could bring back a combination of the original Scishow mark-off topic bar with the second version that scrolls between topics, combined with the new format, that would be very aesthetically pleasing.
The gulf current or AMOC not oly changes the temperature on the British Isles, but it effects the whole climate in Europe. If you compare New York City to Naples in Italy, you see that in spite of being at similar latitude the climate in Naples is much warmer. That means the middle of the mediterranean climate zone is not even farther north than NYC with its snow storms. This example brings into perspective how important one ecologic process can be thousands of kilometers away.
Exactly what I was thinking!! But imo, it slipped onto something different WAY before the end of the video. Although fast talk, saying "research" in front of and after everything and scientific jargon and acronyms do convince/impress a lot of people.
Wow, this video title is quite misleading. There are lots of biodegradeable plastics that really degrade nicely in the environment. The MSU study looked at additives to conventional polymers that are supposed to convert them into "biodegradeable" polymers. This quick fix to conventional plastic appears to not work. However, other plastics, such as PLA, PVA (and others) were not part of this study and are known to degrade well. [Note: the MSU findings have been disputed by other researchers.]
But we screwed it up so that it affects us. Nobody really cares about the Earth's health and climate, they just care about how it would affect themselves and civilization.
Earth's health? Pretty sure the Earth doesn't have an HP bar like humans. It's literally a ball of rock, a habitable one, but a ball of rock nonetheless. Although we only care about the Earth's "health" and "climate" because it would be inhabitable to humans. But, if it comes to that situation, the Earth would continue to spin and rotate as dictated by the laws of physics, and not give a shit about it becoming inhabitable or not..
The best part is the Americans in the comments that don't think climate change is real lmao. I'm not saying I hate global warming. But almost every year now is a record warm year where I live. Some people just can't see past their basement window.
loganv0410 Oh yes, every tiny bit of scientific evidence towards this type of change in the world is obviously a lie, hell, energy is a lie, atoms are a lie, oxygen is a lie, hell lets just discard everything scientists spend their life working on cause it goes against our own thinking, right? No one likes to hear the truth, we love to remain ignorant because we're comfortable in these zones. Doubt is healthy when it comes to data/theories, because it forces them to provide the real evidence. But to deny everything about a particular subject because you don't like to hear it, or are simply Biased towards it (Like Climate Change), well then that makes you a fool.
If that research project was accurately described, it was invalid. Those additives are put into plastic so it will chemically degrade. That does not involve the action of bacteria, and methane gas is not necessarily produced.
If you look at satellite imagery from summer to summer and winter to winter ect. The ice at the North pole and Antarctica is growing, not melting. Secondly, it is getting colder in Nevada, too. Lastly, I have found almost no litter of any kind where I live (and no, it's not on a farm). I once found a plastic bag my parents dropped, that was about 2 hours later, and once I found a small bottle of the yogurt with the monkey on it, which we don't buy.
I'm not sure if this is a stupid question but what if plastic was infused with a darker pigment to attract more heat making it degrade faster ? Maybe whatever the pigment was would degrade before the plastic but the amount of heat in the amount of time it stays on the plastic could potentially speed up the process to some extent. Maybe even if that worked we'd lose the convenience of being able to see through plastic but you could still use glass which might cost more but I wouldn't know whats a more important overall priority... oh well... BACK TO THE AWKWARD CAVE !
The part about the plastics was interesting. I agree with other commenters when it comes to why this wasn't tested before, haha. Though, what's happening when plastic bags disintegrate? At my house, we fill those big garbage bags with empty plastic bottles, and when it's full, we take them to the recycling place. I always have to put them in a different bag first though, because by that point, the garbage bag starts to fall apart in my hands. So I get surprised when people say plastic takes so long to decompose.
There is a cellulose based alternative that I've encountered - used to make bottles, toothbrushes & sponges etc. It feels nice, looks nice and seems durable. Why isn't it used more? Also, there's a difference between biodegradable & degradable. I've had bags made of degradable plastic that disintegrate right in front of me. But it's structural, not chemical (ie just breaking into smaller pieces). I've heard this plastic 'dust' is accumulating in the food chain & on the ocean floor.
There's this idea in the Philippines where shoppers were encouraged to bring their own plastic bags so when you had one from your previous shopping just bring that so that the grocery package guy won't need to give you another thus reducing the demand. The idea didn't last very long, though.
this may be a really a long shot, but could the panama canal be causing the cooling? i mean up until we built the canal, the Pacific and Atlantic stayed mostly separate. but now, for 101 years, massive amounts of water from the two oceans have been mixing and cooling/warming each other.
Yeah, i've done this research on "compostable" plastic. The compostable plastic degrades in just the 100% perfect environment that pretty much only happens in the lab. Put them in the real world and without the right bacterial cocktail very little happens.
I got a free rain poncho made of biodegradable plastic and it disintegrated into little bits within about 16 months. The question is - did it get eaten (biodegrade) or did it just deteriorate into smaller inedible parts?
Why do they say the gulf stream warms the East Coast? If you look at average temperatures, it's pretty consistent as you go west while maintaining the same latitude. Massachusetts isn't warmer than Michigan. Maryland isn't warmer than Missouri.
In Japan, a company called 'Blest,' which is now international, figured out how to turn plastic back into oil. If we turned that oil back to plastic, it would be a whole new way of recycling it. We could set up tons of collection depots for that type of thing, and the promise of a little money would draw people to clean up the streets.
Cold water doesn't go south, it sinks to the bottom. Can anyone explain how currents are generated? My guess is that warm water not only rises but expands and given a limited area would then push warm water out of the area. Any experts know anything about this? What about the cold conveyor, the concept that the cold water outside the Bristish Isles sinks and pulls in new water to fill that void?
There is however biodegradable "plastic" that is made from corn polymers. Yep, at least in Canada where I live every store uses them. They aren't technically edible but one bag wouldn't kill you, because they're made from what is basically corn starch.
I think they need to run the tests on biodegradable plastics for longer. Also weren't they making different polymers by putting oxygen atoms in various places throughout the chain so they could break down faster?
