Developed by researchers from China's Northeast Forestry University, the bamboo plastic can biodegrade in soil within 50 days and offers a pathway towards sustainable plastic alternatives.
Okay, why do we want plastics that biodegade slower than 50 days? Why would that be useless? I agree it’s not groundbreaking, I’m not even sure if using bamboo fibers is better than the cotton fibers we used to use. A real breakthrough would be in manufacturing time, if I’m remembering correctly it’s not a fast process to make this plastic.
If something’s fully biodegraded in fifty days, it’s probably weakened and full of holes to the point of being unusable after much less time than that, so you might only have a week to get a product from the factory into the hands of consumers, then used, then disposed off. Plenty of perishable foods are inedible after a week or two but take several months to fully biodegrade.
Okay, why do we want plastics that biodegade slower than 50 days? Why would that be useless? I agree it’s not groundbreaking, I’m not even sure if using bamboo fibers is better than the cotton fibers we used to use. A real breakthrough would be in manufacturing time, if I’m remembering correctly it’s not a fast process to make this plastic.
If something’s fully biodegraded in fifty days, it’s probably weakened and full of holes to the point of being unusable after much less time than that, so you might only have a week to get a product from the factory into the hands of consumers, then used, then disposed off. Plenty of perishable foods are inedible after a week or two but take several months to fully biodegrade.