eli5: Plastics are polymers that are engineered to have specific uses for utility. Why can’t they be engineered to be better for the environment?

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I really can’t wrap my head around this. With all the garbage created from plastics, can’t they just design and engineer green versions?

Update: Sorry guys, I know I’m oversimplifying everything here. Thanks for the great contribution. Really appreciate it. I didn’t get the answer i wanted, but it was worth a shot.

In: Chemistry

7 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

They (chemical companies) most certainly can. For them to do so it must be *profitable* to do so. A company that does unprofitable things quickly goes out of business. For it to be profitable there must be demand. Demand can come about in two ways: either customers prefer the product of their own free will, or government regulation effectively bans the competing product.

Right now there is no demand. People do not know which type of plastic is more or less bad, and there is no ban on the bad types.

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