Starch is a polymer. Cellulose is a polymer. Chitosan is a polymer, as is chitin. They’re just materials made of long chain, repeating units. One of the ways we can “fix plastic” is by making materials that have similar properties out of naturally-derived stuff that has nothing to do with fossil sources, like plants, arthropod shells, and fungi. We leave a LOT of possibilities just lying around in food production waste streams. This is exactly the same as “replacing plastic,” and the only real difference is which version writers like to use in their articles.
I mean that’s great and stuff but why are we manufacturing something to replace what we can just make from waste streams? I just don’t really get it because I’ve been using scrubs and soaps with natural pit as the exfoliant for like most of my life and microbeads were just a way to use waste plastic, so I don’t get the whole… any of this. We already have things that are fine. Why do we need to manufacture replacements when a pit grinder will do?
We need more alternatives to plastic, not the same number or fewer. Why wouldn’t we make sustainable materials from waste streams to replace the environmentally harmful ones that we banned ten years ago? Your preferences are one person’s preferences. You’re free to continue using apricot scrubs and baby oil, nobody’s trying to take them away from you. However, I would really like to find an environmentally sound, no-fossil-source, physical exfoliant with greater uniformity than the ones you like. (As an aside, milled pits, seeds, and shells (like nut shells) aren’t good exfoliants for human skin. They’re effective scrubbers, but the milling process leaves a lot of points and jagged edges in the resulting product which causes small tears in the skin barrier, reducing its ability to keep your insides safe from the outside.)
It kind of sounds like you’re neglecting the need for continuing innovation in materials science and engineering. We’re not just talking about replacing the horrific plastic microbeads in cosmetics, we’re talking about doing the work to develop entirely new materials that could potentially be used across a wide range of industries. Relying on pits and shells is definitely not the way forward here when we could be developing replacements for plastic wrap and styrofoam using stuff like food waste, fungi, and seaweeds.
Let them find plastic replacements even if you think there’s enough peach pits for your face scrub. The important part is finding a way to replace plastic.
Im not so sure if these is feasible. I can’t find it with a search but I have this memory of a news bit from the early nineties that talked about at that time that if mcdonalds used real maple syrup it would use up the yearly supply in like 3 or 4 months or something. I think it applies to a lot of things an much of the worlds population does not even have access to these luxuries.
Maple syrup is a highly processed thing that takes a lot of work to collect and refine.
That’s not at all the same as using waste pips and pits for things. There are dozens of fruits with pits and pips that can be used as natural exfoliant. Or for dozens of similar uses.
Commercial organizations try to figure out how to feed it to cattle rather than just using it directly.
No, it’s not. It isn’t any more processed than bread. Maybe some maple syrup is highly processed, just like some bread is, but it isn’t categorically so.
Yeah I just brought it up because im not sure if like everyone removed makeup with baby oil would it put strain somewhere and I know most food stuff thats not meat or grain is sorta a drop in the bucket compared to grain so thought maybe it would not really be enough. I mean one reason plastics got going was to use the waste elements from oil when making gasoline and such which is why its so cheap and of course we likely still want to recycle the plastics we have already made unless we can figure out a way to otherwise safely take it out of the system.
Nah I think we are on the same page friend, this stuff is all complicated, but baby oil is something that’s been in use for decades. My mom used it and I’m almost 40. I don’t think we are going to run out. More likely it also causes cancer.
But yeah, if we can use renewables instead of plastic for things like exfoliants or growth mediums or fabrics or whatever… everyone wins.
Starch is a polymer. Cellulose is a polymer. Chitosan is a polymer, as is chitin. They’re just materials made of long chain, repeating units. One of the ways we can “fix plastic” is by making materials that have similar properties out of naturally-derived stuff that has nothing to do with fossil sources, like plants, arthropod shells, and fungi. We leave a LOT of possibilities just lying around in food production waste streams. This is exactly the same as “replacing plastic,” and the only real difference is which version writers like to use in their articles.
I mean that’s great and stuff but why are we manufacturing something to replace what we can just make from waste streams? I just don’t really get it because I’ve been using scrubs and soaps with natural pit as the exfoliant for like most of my life and microbeads were just a way to use waste plastic, so I don’t get the whole… any of this. We already have things that are fine. Why do we need to manufacture replacements when a pit grinder will do?
We need more alternatives to plastic, not the same number or fewer. Why wouldn’t we make sustainable materials from waste streams to replace the environmentally harmful ones that we banned ten years ago? Your preferences are one person’s preferences. You’re free to continue using apricot scrubs and baby oil, nobody’s trying to take them away from you. However, I would really like to find an environmentally sound, no-fossil-source, physical exfoliant with greater uniformity than the ones you like. (As an aside, milled pits, seeds, and shells (like nut shells) aren’t good exfoliants for human skin. They’re effective scrubbers, but the milling process leaves a lot of points and jagged edges in the resulting product which causes small tears in the skin barrier, reducing its ability to keep your insides safe from the outside.)
It kind of sounds like you’re neglecting the need for continuing innovation in materials science and engineering. We’re not just talking about replacing the horrific plastic microbeads in cosmetics, we’re talking about doing the work to develop entirely new materials that could potentially be used across a wide range of industries. Relying on pits and shells is definitely not the way forward here when we could be developing replacements for plastic wrap and styrofoam using stuff like food waste, fungi, and seaweeds.
Let them find plastic replacements even if you think there’s enough peach pits for your face scrub. The important part is finding a way to replace plastic.
Im not so sure if these is feasible. I can’t find it with a search but I have this memory of a news bit from the early nineties that talked about at that time that if mcdonalds used real maple syrup it would use up the yearly supply in like 3 or 4 months or something. I think it applies to a lot of things an much of the worlds population does not even have access to these luxuries.
Maple syrup is a highly processed thing that takes a lot of work to collect and refine.
That’s not at all the same as using waste pips and pits for things. There are dozens of fruits with pits and pips that can be used as natural exfoliant. Or for dozens of similar uses.
Commercial organizations try to figure out how to feed it to cattle rather than just using it directly.
it’s a very good example. Natural rubber too. Some things scale very slow, because plants don’t grow in a day.
No, it’s not. It isn’t any more processed than bread. Maybe some maple syrup is highly processed, just like some bread is, but it isn’t categorically so.
Yeah I just brought it up because im not sure if like everyone removed makeup with baby oil would it put strain somewhere and I know most food stuff thats not meat or grain is sorta a drop in the bucket compared to grain so thought maybe it would not really be enough. I mean one reason plastics got going was to use the waste elements from oil when making gasoline and such which is why its so cheap and of course we likely still want to recycle the plastics we have already made unless we can figure out a way to otherwise safely take it out of the system.
Nah I think we are on the same page friend, this stuff is all complicated, but baby oil is something that’s been in use for decades. My mom used it and I’m almost 40. I don’t think we are going to run out. More likely it also causes cancer.
But yeah, if we can use renewables instead of plastic for things like exfoliants or growth mediums or fabrics or whatever… everyone wins.