What's wrong with plastic? | Our Plastic Predicament: Episode 1  

Perhaps you are missing the point of the principle messages here

@@michellegradley716 am not. Am aware of beneficial aspects of it, but there are alternatives. Something that's intoxicating the food chain ant the water cycle should be replaced as much as possible.

@@KogaBrigaXTC I think the point of these videos is to explain the difference between traditional plastics which are causing considerable environmental damage and indeed should be replaced as soon as possible and bioplastics, particularly biodegradable bioplastics which have potential to offer the same functionality and hence benefits without the destructive environmental consequences. A belief that we can just replace all plastic in the world without major issue is a little unrealistic as plastic play a huge positive as well as negative role in society. I believe and hope these videos will allow society to see the key issues one being the recalcitrance of traditional plastic, i.e it stays with us forever which is intolerable. Surely the use of plastic which is derived from renewable material (plants) with the ability to be completely broken down in the environment is a good thing and an achievable human objective?

@@michellegradley716 Am #ZeroWaste all the way, so familiar with the bioplastics (although there are many disputable properties of it, i.e. it doesn't fully bidegrade, not compostable..., however it's at least in the testing phase, unlike the traditional plastic that failed the test), but just wanted to pinpoint the feature of the plastic that's defended the most by the plastic lobby - it's use in the technology, while, to repeat, computers don't need it to operate.

@@KogaBrigaXTC Hi I appreciate your concerns but please don't view bioplastic as a single product. Bioplastics can be made up of many different components which also can be linked together differently. Hence, yes indeed bioplastics are not yet perfect, but research is progressing to get the composition right such that for example, full compostability/biodegradation is possible. The properties of plastic have always taken time to perfect. The petro plastics we have today were not available decades ago. It took time to optimise their performance (sadly not considering biodegradation) and it will be the same for bioplastics too. We shouldnt dismiss bioplastics just because the products arent yet perfect for our desired environmental suitability. What is important is their progressive potential to replace traditional petro plastics while delivering substantial progressive environment benefit. We should also note the bio-based aspect here too i.e. of course biodegradation is crucially important, but so is the source of the material which makes the plastic. Bio-based means the plastic will also be renewable as it would be derived from plants. OK sure, perhaps computers don't actually need plastic to function, but many many things that we rely on most definitely do. Further, the plastics lobby shouldnt be considered as a single entity, there are many different views and interests within. I wouldnt see this video as in any way at all supportive of traditional petro plastics. I guess I feel we as humans should choose our battles carefully i.e. focus on areas where we really can make a worldwide change. Trying to replace all plastic in the world with something else (non plastic) will likely result in failure. A decision to fully get behind the development and manufacture of bioplastics which do not harm the environment is certainly not a short term task, but it is an achievable one in the future if we all get on board. In principle I think our sentiments are similar (environmental concern). Thanks for the useful discussion.