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Discussion » Questions » Science and Technology » When the widespread use of plastic and plastics blossomed into several products and packaging, few people foresaw the corresponding
Randy D

When the widespread use of plastic and plastics blossomed into several products and packaging, few people foresaw the corresponding

environmental devastation that followed.

  Now, in 2021, what are some products or procedures that are being touted as revolutionary that you suspect might bring defects just as bad as plastics have become?

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Posted - February 7, 2021
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Responses


  • 3684
    Battery-powered cars.

    They are not as "environmentally friendly" (or grammar-friendly) as often thought - they risk basically swapping one lot of problems for another.

    Nor are they new. Battery-powered cars, small lorries and even motor-cycles were common 100 years ago - but battery and motor designs had not advanced very much yet, and they were soon supplanted by the increasingly greater range and convenience of the internal-combustion engine that was advancing rapidly at the same time.  

    There is no such thing as a "free lunch"...

    +==

    We have to be careful when talking about "plastic" though.

    Tell me "plastic is bad" and will I ask you what is the class of plastic, specific plastic, and physical forms of its end-products you mean; what are its specific problems, and what constructive solutions including viable alternatives can you suggest that do not bring other problems of their own.
      February 25, 2021 10:57 AM MST
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  • 52952

     

    “Tell me ‘plastic is bad’, and will I ask you what is the class of plastic, specific plastic, and physical forms of its end-products you mean; what are its specific problems, and what constructive solutions including viable alternatives can you suggest that do not bring other problems of their own?”

      I don’t have a position on the points you’ve raised here, and I join those who ask the last portion about viable alternatives because after more than half a century of becoming so utterly dependent on and accustomed to plastics in general, their replacement or eradication is not a simple matter to tackle. 

    ~

      February 25, 2021 11:15 AM MST
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  • 3684

    Oh, I agree.

    Further, I think what's happened alongside that dependence is a growing ignorance about the materials - indeed about anything engineering-related - so if some campaign groups say to them "Plastic - wrong" they accept it without thinking.

    You and I know the basic differences between thermoplastics, thermosetting plastics and synthetic-resin products, can name common uses for each, their disposal problems and their likely environmental effects if not disposed of properly - but do they?  

      February 25, 2021 12:09 PM MST
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