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Re:Plastic-eating caterpillars: An escape from a shopping ba... by 52-6F-62 on Thursday November 09, 2017 @12:54AM (#15660202)
> a sort of forced obsolescence,

That's a good point I hadn't considered. I was referring more specifically to really temporary storage. For instance, those baby spinach containers are usually made of bioplastics because the contents expire rapidly no matter your intentions. There are often other vegetable or grocery-shelf products that might not have long shelf-lives or delayed uses that could utilize the plastics.

Surely we could divide the products into long-life and short-life? I'm speaking mainly to food products here. I don't see the immediate need to eradicate all plastics from use! I regularly keep my grocery plastic bags and reuse them time and time again. I should have been more specific!

That said, it looks like the costs required to manufacture bioplastics are reducing[0]. The problem with non-bioplastics being that many of the refuse that people don't properly recycle will be here maybe long after you and me, or we can just punt it on down the generational-line, but as we've been witness to more recently that doesn't seem to be a great strategy.

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[0] https://phys.org/news/2015-07-biodegradable-plastic-cheaper-...

Re:Plastic-eating caterpillars: An escape from a shopping ba... by amelius on Thursday November 09, 2017 @09:06AM (#15662437)
Also, if the packaging degrades quickly, then by definition it ends up in your food in larger quantities (not sure if that is a problem though).