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It’s a nice thing that the Biden-Harris administration has decided that the US federal government will phase out the purchase of single-use plastics. After all, the federal government buys more consumer goods than any other buyer in the world, and plastic seems to be in most consumer goods these days. But will the federal government take the next step and embrace unplastics? They’re not known for being as flexible, durable, or powerful as the currently popular plastics on our shelves, but going unplastic could prevent a whole host of environmental problems.

The U.S. government wants to reduce demand for disposable plastic items and create a market for replacements that are reusable, compostable, or easier to recycle. As it should — as a first step. The U.S. generates more plastic waste than any other country. The average U.S. resident is responsible for nearly 500 pounds of plastic waste per year.

But we have to admit that recycling and other well-intentioned programs won’t solve the plastic catastrophe. Only about 9% of the plastic collected through municipal waste collection programs is recycled. We need to find alternatives to plastic — once and for all.

Global plastic production reached 400 million tons in 2022, with packaging and single-use plastics accounting for a substantial portion. The resulting waste ends up in landfills, incinerators or the environment, contributing to environmental pollution. Plastic production releases greenhouse gases and other hazardous pollutants that cause global warming.

The emphasis on limiting plastic use reflects a global recognition that recycling or reusing existing plastics simply won’t work. Global plastic production increased almost 230-fold between 1950 and 2019, to more than 400 million tonnes per year, and is expected to quadruple from current levels by 2050. An estimated 40% of this is single-use plastic, which makes up the majority of the world’s plastic waste.

Still, if the U.S. federal crackdown on single-use plastics takes hold, it “will have a global impact,” said Christy Leavitt, director of the plastics campaign at Oceana, an international advocacy group that works to preserve the ocean. “The U.S. has been a laggard in national action to address plastic pollution,” she added. Today’s pledge “at least puts the federal government in the driver’s seat to address its own plastic use.”

Brenda Mallory, head of the White House Council on Environmental Quality, explained that the changes would require “unprecedented action at every stage of the plastics life cycle.” However, for mass adoption of non-plastic materials to eventually occur, some transitions will need to be institutionalized.

• Replace some of our disposable plastic with truly compostable materials.
• Replace another piece with reusable packaging, such as metal or glass.
• Adjust the economic incentives so that plastic recycling actually works.

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Repeating chains of molecules form the basis for oil-based, reliable plastics

Petroleum is the building blocks of plastic. Aren’t traditional, petroleum-based plastics a crucial part of modern life?

Name as many products that contain plastic as you can in one minute. Go for it!

(Grocery bags, yoga pants, car tires, building materials, toys, medical products, food packaging, cigarette butts, wrapping paper, menstrual products, chewing gum, glitter, makeup, bandages, wet wipes, drink cartons, sea salt, kitchen sponges, tea bags, fruit and vegetable stickers, shaving foam, deodorant, envelopes… Phew!)

The chemistry of plastic is a transformation of oil turning solid, with carbon and hydrogen atoms lining up in repeating units to form long, noodle-like molecules. Simply put, plastics are polymers. A polymer is a substance made of many repeating units. The chain is made by joining together, or polymerizing, at least 1,000 links. These molecules are flexible and strong, so plastic is incredibly durable—so much so that a single plastic bag can break into microscopic pieces and last for decades.

Rwanda and Kenya have passed national bans on single-use plastic bags, and in 2022, Canada passed a ban on many types of single-use plastics, including hot takeout food from major grocery chains. The ban is being fought in the courts. Within the U.S., only 12 states have passed plastic bag bans, including California, Colorado, New Jersey and New York.

The World Wildlife Fund has led a campaign to limit the production and distribution of plastic, but Big Oil has vigorously opposed a Global Plastics Treaty — a set of legally binding and equitable global agreements that would define the tangible steps and timelines needed to change how we produce and consume risky plastics. Such an agreed-upon global treaty would include:

• phasing out all unnecessary plastic products that pose a high pollution risk, including single-use items and excessive packaging;
• establishing binding and specific design requirements for plastic products that lead to a reduction in plastic consumption; and,
• combining strong binding measures with ambitious mechanisms to enable effective implementation and a just transition, including robust technical and financial assistance.

Non-plastic solutions — until now

The transition to biodegradable and compostable plastics is increasingly seen as an efficient alternative for waste management. However, some biobased polymers have low biodegradation rates under home composting and soil conditions. This means that people’s expectations of how plastics behave will have to change. Not every plastic bag derived from green chemistry has to be perfectly flexible, overly tough and indestructible.

Most of us have heard of bioplastics, which are made from sugar cane, corn and more. However, mass producing them means destroying soil quality and emitting too much CO2.

Unplastic researchers often cite seaweed as a viable solution. Seaweed Unplastics are made from the plant’s polysaccharides, long chains of carbohydrate molecules. A bag of this material can be thrown on a regular compost heap, where it will decompose into an organic part of the soil. Seaweed regenerates quickly, has a low carbon footprint, and requires little energy, no fertilizers, no farmland, and no fresh water. Seaweed farms even double as water filtration systems and provide habitat for biodiversity. Startups in Europe are using seaweed as the basis for takeout containers and water-filled rehydration gel balls, among other items. Seaweed is often used to give toothpastes and cosmetics their sticky texture.

Seaweed does have some drawbacks as a replacement for plastic. For example, if bioplastic is going to replace polybags in the fashion industry, it must also be stretchable. That’s currently a hurdle for researchers. To make plastic sheets, manufacturers typically melt plastic pellets, known as nurdles, and blow the resulting mess into a nearly 20’ high bag. But oil-based plastics melt easily; seaweed, on the other hand, doesn’t respond well to heat. So there’s still a lot of work to be done.

But several innovators have found solutions to the stability problems of non-plastic materials and have created viable alternatives to plastics.

Finnish design house Aivan has a pair of concept headphones they’ve dubbed Korvaa, which are made almost entirely from microbe-grown natural materials. Yeast, mold, bioplastics, and other natural materials were used to replace whatever they could in electronics.

A research team from Japan’s Kobe University has discovered how a microscopic algae can be made to spit out D-lactate, an important building block for bioplastics.

Biome Bioplastics builds on 20 years of development activities to produce a range of high-quality, plant-based bioplastics that are 100% biodegradable and compostable.

The Hemp Plastic Company is creating a greener future with low carbon, cost-effective hemp-blended biocomposites and bioplastics.