Environmental Question #39 [Replacing Plastic Products]

Can you go room by room and replace every common product with something bio degradable?

Courtesy of Reddit user u/KingRBPII


Q: Can you go room by room and replace every common product with something bio degradable?

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A: Yes, but there are downsides to it. The biggest downside is cost. Products made from natural materials like wood and metal last a lot longer than plastic products, but they are also much more expensive to produce. This is often offset by the longer product lifespan, but long-lasting products don't fit well into the current planned obsolescence economy. For example, my family still regularly uses my grandmother's stand mixer for baking. That mixer is about 75 years old at this point, it's made completely of metal, and it works perfectly. That's also why some people collect old Singer sewing machines. There are sewing machines that are over 100 years old that still work like new, but buying those high quality long-lasting products back in the day was a major investment.

For specifically biodegradable materials, compared to metal and glass, which are natural and safe, but not technically biodegradable, many products can be made of natural materials that were used historically. Clothes can be made of cotton and linen, furniture can be made of wood and wool, decorations can be made of paper and natural rubber. There are also some promising biodegradable plastics that could be used for specific things like the outside of electronics and toothbrush bristles.

While it is technically possible to live this way today, it is not practical and it is very very expensive. My home is filled with plastic products. I'm writing this while sitting on a plastic couch (made of recycled water bottles) on top of a plastic rug (made of polyester), because if I had insisted on my rugs being made of wool, I wouldn't be able to afford to have a rug in every room like I currently do. It isn't your personal responsibility to remove any and all plastic from your life, because the amount of research and money it would take for you to achieve that is completely unreasonable. The best way to solve the plastic pollution problem is for everyone to band together as a society to make avoiding plastic easier. Plastic is cheap because governments subsidize oil companies, rather than sustainability companies. Income inequality is so prevalent that most people couldn't even consider spending a large amount of money on a quality product that would last a lifetime and beyond. These problems can be solved at a societal level, and that is the only practical way to do it.