Humanity's dependency on plastic has created an Earth untouched by humans, from above the highest mountain peaks to the bottom of Mariana's Trench you will find plastic, remaining for up to a thousand or so years. Plastic-type materials shouldn't be found outside of human-occupied areas and should be completely biodegradable and compostable, leaving no harmful chemical or physical trace. I envision a world where plastic products are used sparingly and only if absolutely necessary (such as city infrastructure, construction, technologies, science, health care, etc.) and all single-use plastics are either not manufactured or replaced with biological materials. Besides all the laws and such that would have to be passed to essentially outlaw most plastic, new materials would have to be manufactured to replace single-use plastics. Having would be plastic products replaced with biological sources such as bamboo, banana leaves, mycelium, beeswax, seaweed, etc. would solve many issues that plastic has. It would allow these products to be edible or uninteresting to animals, they don't break down into micro-materials, and don't leach harmful chemicals into the air, water, and soils.
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Hi Tyson, I too think that it's crazy where people have found plastic. I also think it would be interesting if we could ban plastic materials from outside human environments. If you're going past a certain point in the forest plastic is illegal-if you can't go in without a plastic product then you shouldn't be going at all. Would be an interesting concept.
Hi Tyson! I love your idea of implementing laws that limit the use of plastic, but allow its use for certain situations. I think that is totally reasonable because plastics used in the scenarios you provided would be for the greater good and in some cases, would not be single use plastics, which is good. I wonder though, if we were to replace plastics with other materials like bamboo, what could be some of the externalities that come from shifting demanding from oil (to make plastics) to bamboo? Would we have to clear land to grow bamboo? Would we be changing landscape structures? I think solutions are great but lately I always worry about how the externalities of the solution would compare to that of the problem.
Hi Tyson. I love your solution to the single use plastic problem by using biological alternatives like beeswax!
Hi Tyson, when I saw plastics in mountains or forests, it's so depressed that the nature provide a place to relax but we give back harm, harm that produces a vicious cycle that impact all levels of organization in ecology. I totally agree with your idea that we could use biodegradable materials to replace plastics, thank you for providing specific examples!
Hi Tyson! I really like your vision and proposed intervention! I agree that if as a community we move to using plastic alternatives, large corporations may feel forced to abandon single-use plastics to meet consumer demands.
I like all of the different alternatives to plastic you listed! it shows there are many good options of materials to use other than plastic and its just a matter of pushing for changes to happen.
You've mentioned a lot of plastic alternatives, which I love! I also like how you mentioned that our plastic use probably won't be completely eliminated, but that we can take steps for ensuring it's used sparingly. Great post!
Love that you've listed alternative materials that could be used for single-use items! I had not heard of many of them before. I'm curious though how we might define "absolutely necessary" use for plastics - Sadly I feel like governments might assign that term generously.
Hi Tyson! Considering how deep the Mariana Trench is and how difficult it is to get deep down there, it's saddening to hear that there is waste we have produced that will remain there for such a long period of time. However, I enjoyed reading your intervention as I've been meaning to try using beeswax wraps for a while now! Your post tying this into our ecosystem as well further makes me want to buy the wraps as soon as possible so thank you :)
I think that's one of the scariest parts about plastic waste and pollution. It's not just that we're finding it in almost every ecosystem on the planet. It's presence is horrible but the side effects of plastic leaching chemicals and microplastics bioaccumulating in different tissues is right out of a horror story.