Edible 'water bottles' made of seaweed - what's the hold up?
Discussion
George Carlin once said:
"The earth probably sees plastic as just another one of its children. Could be the only reason the earth allowed us to be spawned from it in the first place. It wanted plastic for itself. Didn’t know how to make it. Needed us."
Some of you may have seen this resurface recently:
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/sep/1...
The story has circulated for years now. Here's the company responsible: http://www.skippingrockslab.com/
This product, made of a biodegradable membrane of brown algae and calcium chloride, makes bold claims about being able to replace traditional plastic use in fluid carrying functions - and in principle, having seen footage and read about it, it seems both fascinating and ingenious.
I know these kinds of thing can take ages to get off the ground, but I am just curious - four years since it's inception, they still appear to be the only company with a foothold in such activities, and I actually doubt their commercial credibility. Is our global consumption of plastic such that ideas like this will simply be ignored for the sake of ease?
I just wanted to get other people's take on this sort of stuff - it does seem that science can find great ways to reduce plastic usage (specifically single use plastics) - but without investment from the major players, and the wind-down of current (and lucrative) production models will we just have to accept that plastic is here to stay for a lot longer than is perhaps environmentally sound?
"The earth probably sees plastic as just another one of its children. Could be the only reason the earth allowed us to be spawned from it in the first place. It wanted plastic for itself. Didn’t know how to make it. Needed us."
Some of you may have seen this resurface recently:
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/sep/1...
The story has circulated for years now. Here's the company responsible: http://www.skippingrockslab.com/
This product, made of a biodegradable membrane of brown algae and calcium chloride, makes bold claims about being able to replace traditional plastic use in fluid carrying functions - and in principle, having seen footage and read about it, it seems both fascinating and ingenious.
I know these kinds of thing can take ages to get off the ground, but I am just curious - four years since it's inception, they still appear to be the only company with a foothold in such activities, and I actually doubt their commercial credibility. Is our global consumption of plastic such that ideas like this will simply be ignored for the sake of ease?
I just wanted to get other people's take on this sort of stuff - it does seem that science can find great ways to reduce plastic usage (specifically single use plastics) - but without investment from the major players, and the wind-down of current (and lucrative) production models will we just have to accept that plastic is here to stay for a lot longer than is perhaps environmentally sound?
I think, with things like that, I question the 1p per unit cost, maybe when manufacturing is at full swing, but initially and until the idea takes hold it will be more expensive. For people to pay a premium on expensive goods it seems to me that said goods have to be "Trendy", just look at the prices of a bottle of water, because it has a jazzy name or Smart (see what I did there) graphics.
From my experiences, I believe the plastic problem comes straight down to responsibility, or peoples lack of. Go to any major event, sports, concert or other open air event and just look at the rubbish people leave behind, all because they can't be bothered to take their rubbish to the nearest bin (or if the bins are full, take it home). No doubt, these are the same people that among their peers will talk about climate change and the effect we have on the planet, then leave their crap lying around everywhere.
Years ago, people were prouder of their communities, or the area they were in and would dispose of stuff properly. Now it just seems to be too much effort for them.
Once we can convince the public to do their bit, then the rubbish collection services need to do their bit, by properly recycling things.
I do think (and it's just an opinion though), that when we see on the news the horrible effects of plastics on the environment and wildlife that in the main the first world is not the main problem and that it is the developing nations that have yet to adopt the idea of recycling etc that influence these issues more.
From my experiences, I believe the plastic problem comes straight down to responsibility, or peoples lack of. Go to any major event, sports, concert or other open air event and just look at the rubbish people leave behind, all because they can't be bothered to take their rubbish to the nearest bin (or if the bins are full, take it home). No doubt, these are the same people that among their peers will talk about climate change and the effect we have on the planet, then leave their crap lying around everywhere.
Years ago, people were prouder of their communities, or the area they were in and would dispose of stuff properly. Now it just seems to be too much effort for them.
Once we can convince the public to do their bit, then the rubbish collection services need to do their bit, by properly recycling things.
I do think (and it's just an opinion though), that when we see on the news the horrible effects of plastics on the environment and wildlife that in the main the first world is not the main problem and that it is the developing nations that have yet to adopt the idea of recycling etc that influence these issues more.
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