Why is plastic so prevalent in our society?

[Deja Q]

Especially with food and garbage products.

Paper bags fo disposing of our garbage is biodegradeable. Plastic is not.

Glass, aluminum, and wax coated paper seem to do a great job at storing liquids and beverages. Why use plastic? Ever drink V8 house within a plastic container? THAT is why it tastes yucky. It tastes much better from a glass bottle.

LCD screens - made with plastic. What's wrong with TVs using glass and those cool wood housings?

And, really, how far can plastic be re-used once it's extruded and formed?

[La_Serpiente]

1. I like to use plastic

I usually recycle my plastic bags and other sorts. However, for me at least, plastic is fairly cheap. You can also mix things like pudding or other things in a plastic container. If I used aluminum, it would probably scratch the metal, making a harsh, shrill sound.

And for glass? well, sometimes I do not want my gellatin to crack in half it falls to the ground. At least with plastic, there is that insurance policy.

As for the longetivity of plastic, I take pretty good care of my tupperware.

[TexasMexican]

2. biodegradable plastic

I wonder when/if they will be making that biodegradable plastic available. The stuff that is supposed to be made from corn and stuff.

Other than that yeah I sort of wish we could get back to using more glass and aluminum for drinks. I always thought it would be cool if they made 20oz coke aluminum cans like they do for beer. :p

[Dogmudgeon]

28. Attention: Plastic IS Biodegradable!

Not just "some plastic" ... or "most plastic" ... but ALL PLASTIC.

Plastics are polymers of fairly common organic compounds. Some of them last a long time, but ethylene plastics biodegrade pretty fast. Haven't you ever stored something in a plastic bag, then a few years later, gone to retrieve it, and the bag was in tatters?

A lot of the bad repute plastics have comes from the "hippie" movement, which used the word "plastic" to mean "phony." (LP records were, of course, not included in that description.)

They can, and they should, engineer plastics to be even more biodegradable, and I agree with a lot of the environmental concerns. But the idea that plastic is some kind of ultra-poisonous substance that never decays is just wrong.

Glass isn't biodegradable; neither is aluminum, or tin-galvanized-steel. Some metals can rust into simple minerals, and glass can be pulverized back into a kind of artificial sand. Paper isn't particularly easy to biodegrade, but it turns into wood pulp, which is eventually eaten up by fungus and mushrooms.

A small consolation, I know. But it should give activists another way to put pressure on business and industry, and give business and industry an incentive to come up with more environmentally-friendly packaging.

--bkl

[foo_bar]

3. just one word

[VOX]

14. Well played, foo_bar!

:toast:

[Spider Jerusalem]

4. Not enough metal, wood, leather, etc...

to supply the tremendous demand for consumer products our fucked-up leisure lifestyle with its endless accumulating of crap requires. And plastic fills most of the niches previously occupied by the other, natural products...at least till we run out of oil.

[KT2000]

5. Plastic comes from oil n/t

[TreasonousBastard]

6. Paper does NOT biodegrade...

at least not in the real world.

Paper bags take up much more room in landfills than those cheap plastic bags, and don't break down. Paper requires conditions that landfills don't have in order to break down. Curiously, investigators have found paper is one of the worst problems in landfills, and they've found old phone books to be among the worst offenders. None have broken down, and there are 20 year old phone books down there. And there are lots of phone books thrown away. Since we throw stuff in the trash rather than recyle them, the plastic bags are actually landfill friendly!

Same with wax paper, which requires oil, btw-- they don't use beeswax for wax paper.

Plastics are cheaper and easier to produce than other things, like aluminum and glass. Aluminum requires vast amount of electricity, and glass requires heat-- usually by burning something. Refining aluminum from bauxite is not exactly environmentally friendly. Nor is recycling it. Plastics are often simple chemical processes and production can be very clean and energy efficient if the producer is careful about the byproducts. Most are made from oil, but some could be made from coal.

There are hundreds of types of plastics out there, and most can be recycled. Some can be melted and others need to be broken down chemically. Most of them can be crushed down smaller than the alternatives if they end up in landfills.

A real problem is the recycling-- we just don't do it here as much as we should. We have to bribe people with deposits to recycle bottles and cans so they don't go into the landfill.

[izzie]

7. Interesting you said that about paper in land fills.

I recall when they said it was other things and I read a book on trash as it became sort of interesting. It was newspapers that was filling them up and they were not going to rot.

[izzie]

8. It also keeps the amount of oil we need at a high level and that .....

means big money for oil companies. I also like plastic and re-use all bags etc.

[TreasonousBastard]

25. About newspapers...

newspapers, and other paper, can be easily recycled-- if we threw them in recycle bins rather than the trash.

But, there's another angle. A few years ago the New York Times stopped using recycled newsprint. They found that newsprint made from trees actually cost them a penny or so a pound less than recycled newsprint, so they went back to cutting the trees down. I don't know what they're doing now.

The total cost of cutting down the trees, chopping them up and getting them from the paper mill to the printing plant cost less than the total cost of collecting old paper, bleaching and turning it into fresh paper, and getting it to the printing plant. The trees they cut down could be from managed forests where there is limited environmental damage.

Recycling paper can also be a messy job, and recycling plants are not always environmentally friendly either.

As usual-- there are no easy answers, and every solution has its up- and downsides.

[ProfessorGAC]

26. I Think That's The Case

I've read a report filed about a landfill right here in my county. In it, researchers found newspapers from the 1930's(!) that had still not broken down.

They don't get enough air for the cellulose to fully oxidize (it's only at 75% of its total oxidation state when it's paper) so bacteria can't digest the breakdown products.

In addition, it is said that the first few pages effectively shield the rest of the paper from any oxygen content, especially when the surface gets wet.

So, paper in a landfill is, indeed, a major trash problem. Better that paper gets recycled.
The Professor

[Deja Q]

16. Thanks for the edification!

It's another reason to :loveya: DU. Lots of intelligent people about, though I'm as bright as a 2 watt light bulb at times. :-(

[otohara]

18. Wild Oats Stores Have Biodegradable Containers Now

announced it a couple of weeks ago, saw one myself at lunch last week. Pretty cool, made from corn

[0rganism]

9. It's lightweight, waterproof, and easily molded

Plastic is cool. We make groovy things with plastic.

Is it sometimes overused? Sure, but that's just poor design.

[jonoboy]

10. if it could decay it would be the perfect product

[BiggJawn]

11. Because it's just like Brown-25....

Another fine product from Uranus.
It can be made easily into SO many diferent things!

[Kamika]

12. isnt it just cheap and durable?

I mean i cant think of a better product to store certain things in

[electricmonk]

13. Good book about what's in landfills

Rubbish The Archaeology of Garbage


I work in a plastics molding factory and there's very little waste on our end. If any plastic ends up in the trash from manufacturing that's money thrown away so we are constantly looking for ways to reduce our scrap. We make a lot of medical parts so those have to be perfect the first time. About 95% of what we scrap though gets reused somewhere else in the plant.

As for why plastic? Once a company invests 10-100 grand on a mold they can get 100's of thousands if not millions of parts out of it.

I will agree with you that any drink tastes way better out of glass than plastic or cans. I won't even touch beer that's not in a glass bottle.

[Leados]

15. Plastics are polymers

And as such can potentially be re-used.

Scientists are working on bio-degradable polymer systems for use in application. But many times, the nonbio-degradability of polymers are their strong point, not to mention cheapness (at least for now). As oil prices start going up, most resin prices will also go up. Watch for a turn to renewable resources for plastic use (although these are usually not very good for most applications yet).

Mostly its just that many Americans are lazy and don't care about the environment enough to even attempt recycling.

[Swede]

17. It can have so many uses,colors,textures.

Strong,malleable,and cheap.

[xJlM]

19. Plastic is how I earn a living

It's a definitely renewable resource that has so many uses it's hard to understand. There are plastics out there which are stronger than metal. Kevlar, as I'm sure you're all familiar, is used in making body armor for our armed forces.

Plastic is a byproduct of our petroleum industry. At one time, the plastic which came from the cracking process was simply discarded. Plastic is a man-formulated product, not a product of nature. I'm not sure biodegradable plastic is a common reality. In addition, all plastics can be recycled, although the thermoset plastics require more expense in rendering the finished product reuseable.

[Blue_Chill]

20. It's a superior material

Paper bags fo disposing of our garbage is biodegradeable. Plastic is not.

Not form fitting for our garbage cans, not as easy to close/seal when full, more likely to be damaged by spilled liquids causing messy spills.

Glass, aluminum, and wax coated paper seem to do a great job at storing liquids and beverages.

Glass is heavier which matters a great deal in shipping and expense of delivering a product to consumer. Glass is fragile and thus results in more loss then plastic.

Wax paper is great but not as long lasting and more likely to tear or leak.

LCD screens - made with plastic. What's wrong with TVs using glass and those cool wood housings?

Think of the added cost in shipping between a rather lightwieght plastic monitor and a incredibly heavy WOOD AND GLASS monitor. That's not the only problem either, the wood would need to be treated to not retain any moisture resist temp changes without expanded etc etc. The glass would make consumers think twice because it's more likely to break, crack, chip, etc.

[Ellen Forradalom]

21. Oh don't get me started

I HATE PLASTIC. Specifically plastic used in packaging. Come to think of it I hate all excessive packaging. God it drives me crazy.

[marzipanni]

22. I second that emotion!

When I go to the grocery store I re-use the sturdy large paper bags w/handles (store refunds 5¢/bag) or use canvas bags. When I do get plastic bags at other stores they collect FAST and I recycle them. When I see how fast they build up as I stuff all into one (and I don't shop for much other than food) I think of all those bags that aren't recycled and end up in landfill. We need a big think tank on packaging. I've heard that in Europe people make fun of our plastic yogurt containers, etc. because they use glass and recycle it. But then, water is going to be the next thing we have to worry about and you have to wash glass to reuse it.
When it comes down to it I think the most important thing is zero population growth. When this pope dies maybe a more modern thinking pope will realize it's not 2,000 years ago anymore- going forth and multiplying causes a lot of misery in poor countries where they can't feed the family unless they go to another country and send money back. Bush* and the pope getting together to close family planning clinics around the world was depicable.

[TreasonousBastard]

27. I third it...

it seems damn near everything I buy comes in a plastic bubble. Remember the flack over CDs coming in those huge plastic boxes?

Most plastic I end up with gets a second use. The plastic shopping bags become storage or trash bags, or used to take stuff somewhere else.

Chinese soup, yogurt, sour cream, etc, containers I save and reuse. I use them for for food instead of buying Tupperware, or for storing leftover paint, small parts, and just about everything else.

Cans and jars, too.

(I have this huge collection of coffee cans...)

[TXlib]

23. Today's landfills will become tomorrow's mines.

[Swede]

24. With nanotechnology they will be tommorow's gold mines.