A Biofriendly
World
Issues & Ethics
[I1]
Social: Consumer Confusion
[I2]
When producing bioplastics, one issue immediately ran into is: consumer confusion. The term bioplastics with the "biodegradable" and "renewable" descriptions mislead many consumers to believe that these new products can be disposed of anywhere because they will "biodegrade". This can lead to even greater amounts of litter on streets and oceans, those bioplastics can still harm wildlife and other animals interacting with them. This assumption that bioplastics can biodegrade anywhere and not harm animals in the process is false; the bioplastic products simply just degrading just much faster and being made out of renewable sources instead of harmful, non-renewable, expensive ones. and also have to be disposed of properly to be actually effective in its purpose.
[I5]
Economical: High Costs
The current decreasing prices of oil have been damaging the bioplastic industry by making it difficult for bioplastics to achieve competitive pricing levels compared to conventional plastics at present. The current higher costs of bioplastics have caused many controversial arguments dealing with the investment into bioplastics, with many companies being pressured to make the switch to bioplastic products and packaging, though many of them not wanting to invest that high of a price on these renewable sources that could potentially halt our growing plastic issue.
[I3]
[I5]
[I1]
Political: Disagreements on investment
Throughout the environmental biotechnology community, disagreements on whether these technological advancements actually benefit the environment, or continue to contribute to the plastic pollution issue, still rage on. Though only some renewed bioplastics have shown to be biodegradable, some have failed, showing that it is possible for these materials to potentially be releasing different toxins that still damage the soil and ocean environments. Reluctance on investing for further research on this issue is the main obstacle in solving this complication, and if a solution to this impediment is found, then it could unlock the door to finally ending one of humanity's largest growing plights.