People with 3D printers will remember how we were lied to about PLA's biodegradability.
this post was submitted on 21 Mar 2024
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Whoa, really? I’m aware of other scandals in the industry. Like anti-competitive buyouts intended to stifle it. But, generally, I’m a 3D printing outsider. I had not heard about this.
The original story was similar: PLA is made from corn, and is completely biodegradable.
Interested people took various parts made from PLA and put them outside for a while. Some people buried them. Some people put them in their compost pile or canisters. I think the only result was some discoloration and possibly some reduced strength.
So now it seems PLA only biodegrades under industrial conditions, requiring elevated temperatures.
AFAIK under elevated temperatures, it degrades nicely. At typical soil temperatures it slowly degrades into methane which is a greenhouse gas - not great for the environment... but it's still a hell of a lot better than plastic.
As bad as methane is, at least it has a relatively short life before it becomes Co2 and ultimately is absorbed by trees/etc and re-enters the cycle of life. Plastic on the other hand is really nasty toxin that often ends up in the ocean and causes long term damage.
The TLDR is methane needs to be managed, we have to make sure we don't produce too much. While plastic should just be illegal. We should never produce any plastic, at all, for any reason. It's going to take a long time but that's where we have to go.
We should never produce any plastic, at all, for any reason.
What about for medical reason? AFAIK reusing stuff for highly infectious cases is not an option.
I remember I spoke with the professor at UCSD working on this eTPU alternative to regular PUR this article is referencing a few years back. He was frothing at the mouth of selling this as a product as he was eager to talk with big companies to sell the research, it turned me off 100%. I asked if it decomposes just as well anaerobically and he said it's not intended to be used outside of composting scenarios. It also has little shelf life and more hygroscopic which reduces use performance over time. So there we have it. Another green wash situation. Your composter is NOT going to accept this when they see it x10000000
You're making perfect the enemy of good.
Yes, re-usable cups are better than a commercially compostable cup. Use re-usable cups if at all possible. But like it or not some people just aren't going to do that, and commercially compostable cups are a hell of a lot better than plastic. Even if they don't get composted, and you send them to regular landfill, they are still a million times better than plastic.
Sending plastic to the landfill that doesn't decompose anaerobically is essentially the same as sending regular plastic. Also, using shitty material that has a shorter shelf life also means it allows for planned obsolescence for items you wouldn't have thought was possible. For instance that can allow companies to put best use by dates on a refrigerator, home insulation, soles on shoes etc. For single use items it would make it so stock would be thrown out if not consumed more frequently. We would end up sending even more plastic to the landfills.
Hello!
We should never produce any plastic for throwable products, but such a product could be a good start for people who aren’t actively trying to avoid plastic packaging.
Still, we also have to change our wasteful mentality and way of life.
Glad to see progress on this topic. Pretty sure microplastics will be our generation’s lead.
The term is a bit of a contradiction of itself. But good news. Let’s hope it… does not take 25 years to propagate.