Turning plants into plastic

[auroraglacialis]

Dow Chemical uses nanotechnology to turn plant life into non-biodegradable plastics

Dow Chemical, working together with Utrecht University, has found a way to develop the building blocks of plastics from the living flesh of plants, as a purportedly green alternative to oil-based production.
The researchers were able to construct the widely-used plastics ethylene and propylene from an iron catalyst made up of nanoparticles

Some will say this is great because now we can make plastics even if oil runs out. I would say this is horrible for the same reasons that biofuels are horrible (massive land use, deforestation, monocrop plantations,...) plus the added problem of putting even more plastics into the world that already has more plastic particles than plankton in some oceans...

[Raiden]

Originally Posted by auroraglacialis

Dow Chemical uses nanotechnology to turn plant life into non-biodegradable plastics


Some will say this is great because now we can make plastics even if oil runs out. I would say this is horrible for the same reasons that biofuels are horrible (massive land use, deforestation, monocrop plantations,...) plus the added problem of putting even more plastics into the world that already has more plastic particles than plankton in some oceans...

**dumps plastic-eating fungus from amazon all over DOW and Utrecht**

Problem?

[mikkowilson]

Our situation has not improved.


- Mikko

[Clarke]

Bacteria will probably evolve to eat plastics, which means that we don't have to mine anything anymore.

(Also, hydroponics FTW.)

[Human No More]

Actually, it's good since it removes CO2 from the air.

When the biofuel bubble bursts and people realise they're inefficient, there's a more efficient use for that space - you can say the same thing about overpopulation, that population growth will just cause more plants to be needed and be correct - that's the problem.