how is anything inorganic , if everything we have is from the earth itself and is therefore natural?
part 2 of the same question is why are somethings then non biodegradable?
In: Chemistry
You’re misunderstand the definition of inorganic. Inorganic refers to thing that are/were part of a living thing. Your body is organic, your corpse will be organic, hemp clothes are organic, cotton is organic, but oil based textile aren’t. It’s not living nor the residue of a living thing. For that matter, plants are alive and thus pretty much all plant based stuff is organic.
For your second question, biodegradable mean that something can easily be recycled by nature. In most cases, nature use bacteria and insects to degrade stuff. When you throw a piece of wood, insects and bacteria munch on it until nothing is left but the poop from these things. Same thing with bits of food and usually the vast majority of non-treated organic materials.
Non biodegradable stuff is usually something that cannot be degraded by insects and bacteria. Instead they can only rely on the wear of time (wind, water,…) to slowly erode themselves. Depending on the material, it can take more or less time for it to completely degrade. Plastic is of course not the only non biodegradable stuff, stone aren’t either.
The big issue with plastic is that we produce tons of it, throw away most of it, and insects and bacteria have no idea how to degrade it. Thus they just keep stacking in landfills and oceans.
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