Biodegrading Plastic - The way of the future.
This article prompted me to write my own little take on plastic.
In Japan, Sanyo came up with biodegrading CD's made out of corn, called MildDisc. The CD's degrade after about 50-100 years (link). So I asked a friend whether he'd buy a CD like that, and he immediately told me that a CD that degrades after 50 years is a really bad idea because a CD should last forever and people would feel less secure about their data. In other news, normal CDR's should be rerecorded ever 5 or so years if you wanna preserve your data for sure. Otherwise you run a risk of losing it all, since even REAL CD's made out of plastic, degrade. Except, it's not the actually CD that degrades, it's the data. So while you lose your data, the CD stays, to pollute the environment for a few thousand years.
I am hoping that his shortsighted views are not the views of most consumers...
If we are to survive on this planet, we need to come up with solutions that do not end. Producing plastic out of corn, means you can do it all the time, at least until the sun stops burning. Not only does this help the agricultural industry, it also helps our environment. (of course this implies that you treat the land properly so it does not become useless for crops)
I have yet to see any more news on the MildDisc (which saddens me). I would like to see the most common plastic objects replaced with with biodegradable stuff made from corn (or whatever else they can find). That would mean that we would not have to recycle anymore, at least not when it came to plastic.
Recycling is a good idea, but most people do not recycle the most common things, like toothbrushes or kitchen tools. Besides, it's a pain in the ass to have to sort your waste according to material.
Some can argue that a toothbrush that degrades after 50 years is a bad idea, but that person should probably see a dentist asap. Most plastic items are discarded after only a few years, I'd make my own personal estimate about 5-25 years.
So this brings us to biodegrading materials. There can be a ton of applications for biodegrading plastic, things like milk cartons, fast food packaging, many consumer electronics... Who keeps their ipods or keyboards or mice for more then a few years anyway?
So hopefully when oil runs out, or someone realizes that it will run out, they wont just switch to another equally environmentally unfriendly way of producing plastic, and realise that bio materials is the way to go.