@rainbowarrior; @Mr.Lumin
University of California article, published in Science Daily (2019):". . . Increasing the percentage of bio-based plastics could also drive down [CO2] emissions. Bio-based plastics are produced from plants, which capture atmospheric CO2 as they grow. If they are composted, carbonaceous materials in bio-plastics are released back to the atmosphere as CO2. This makes the material itself carbon-neutral, although manufacturing still generates a small amount of greenhouse gasses."
A brief list of problems related to conventional plastic:
- Plastics take 500 to 1000 years to biodegrade.
- The Great Pacific Garbage Patch covers 1.7 million square kilometres of ocean.
- Greater than 100,000 marine mammals die from plastic bags each year.
- 50% of the worlds turtles have died from eating plastic bags, thinking they are jellyfish
- Plastic is driving Albatrosses to near extension, due to its effect on chicks (cuts their stomach and they starve).
- Microplastics, which attract and release toxins, are everywhere, even in carrots.
- CO2 released from conventional plastic during incineration increases global CO2 levels because the CO2 is released from plants/algae that lived millions of years ago.
- In 2016, U.S. waste incinerators released the equivalent of 12 million tons of carbon dioxide, more than half of which came from plastics.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/04/190415144004.htm
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/2019/03/should-we-burn-plastic-waste/
