Re:An illustrated guide to plastic straws (2021)
by lisper on Tuesday May 03, 2022 @02:08AM
(#31245215)
But plastics are not made from atmospheric CO2, they are made from fossil hydrocarbons.
That's the whole point: the one saving grace of plastics is that they maintain the sequestration of fossilized CO2. If you let them decompose all the way back to CO2 then you have eliminated that last remaining benefit.
Then, if you buried that plastic (made from atmospheric CO2) in a landfill after use, that would plausibly be removing CO2 from the atmosphere, not adding it. Assuming it doesn't break down in the landfill and leak out as methane or something.