Are there any ways that certain plastics can be produced to help the environment?
Plastics are a commonplace and important part of a huge array of products that benefit society. Clearly, there is potential for plastics to disturb and damage ecosystems due to their persistence in the environment (non-degradable properties) and this is becoming a concern globally as well as here in Australia. We do not know whether plastics can be developed to help the environment. There are many plastic products that are used to help prevent or stabilise environmental degradation for example in areas such as drainage management. Some plastics are being developed that reduce their impact on the environment at the end of their product life. For example, there are a range of plastics being produced that incorporate properties or characteristics that allow them to degrade in the environment and a Google search under biodegradable plastic reveals a number of interesting sites – here is one of them – http://www.greenplastics.com/ There are also a range of substitute (non-petroleum based) p
Plastics are a commonplace and important part of a huge array of products that benefit society. Clearly, there is potential for plastics to disturb and damage ecosystems due to their persistence in the environment (non-degradable properties) and this is becoming a concern globally as well as here in Australia. We do not know whether plastics can be developed to help the environment. There are many plastic products that are used to help prevent or stabilise environmental degradation for example in areas such as drainage management. There are also a range of substitute (non-petroleum based) plastics being developed that incorporate components such as corn starch and poly lactic acid that are compostable or degradable in the environment. For more information check out the Plastic Industry Association of Australia website.
