Biodegradable Plastics: The Consumer Future?

Plastics are both a wonder-invention and a mounting liability in the industrialized world. Remarkable in their ability to do everything from preserve food to form break-proof containers, plastics have changed the way the world works since the 1950s. However, most plastics out there today are not biodegradable, meaning that once discarded, they stay as they are instead of decomposing into smaller parts. It is estimated that 90% of plastics ever produced by mankind still exist in the world today. As landfills start to burst at the seams, research has begun to intensify over the viability of organically-produced, biodegradable plastics.

Plastics are constructed of things called polymers, which are little more than chains of molecules. These chains give a structural integrity to the plastic, allowing it to be both durable and versatile without shearing or tearing under stress. Most plastics are produced synthetically from certain chemicals (usually petroleum products) in large plants. The aim of many scientists is to reduce our dependence on both these kinds of plastics and the materials used to make them. Petroleum comes from oil, and our dependence on plastics ties us even more intricately in with that finite and volatile resource.