> What the EU – and everyone else – needs to be doing is to develop, or encourage the development of, plastics which can do the job of existing materials but which will break down in the environment in a matter of weeks or months, like paper and cardboard.
This would be amazing but there is a possibility that it's actually impossible. There is nothing magical about the environment. Paper and cardboard are physically degraded by moisture and chemically by fungus. The reason plastics are popular is because they don't do that. The more degradable you make a plastic in the environment, the less desirable it's properties are for foodstuffs.
This would be amazing but there is a possibility that it's actually impossible. There is nothing magical about the environment. Paper and cardboard are physically degraded by moisture and chemically by fungus. The reason plastics are popular is because they don't do that. The more degradable you make a plastic in the environment, the less desirable it's properties are for foodstuffs.