#thinkbioplastic

P is for plastic

This website and its short explanatory videos convey the problem about production, use and disposal of plastics (or rather organic polymers) are simply the best I’ve ever come across. Alisa Murphy of Life Size Media, Europe's cleantech communications agency, funnily and comprehensibly explains the lifecycle of plastics.

Episode 1 ‘What's wrong with plastic?’ explains the plastic problem: the problem isn’t using plastics but rather how they’re made and what happens to them once we’re done with them.

Episode 2 ‘Unsavoury beginnings‘ gets into the chemistry of organic polymers and dscribes the “birth” of long hydrocarbon chains by the man-made chemical reaction called polymerisation.

Episode 3 ‘Why won’t you die?’ deals with why plastic doesn’t break down and biodegrade and thus can’t be digested by naturally occuring microbes.

Episode 4 ‘Plastics from plansts’ describes the advatages of biobased plastics such as pens made out of potatoes, coffee pods made of corn or cutlery made of cellulose.