Disadvantages Of Biodegradable Polymers

Plastic's end of life cycle involves being discarded, either recycled for reuse or dumped into a landfill or the ocean. Recycling's popularity has significantly grown since the 1970's, as well as the overall number of plastic products being produced. In addition, the amount of plastic products being created as significantly increased over the past 60 years. Due to the endurance of polymers, plastic is filling up landfills faster than it should and invading our natural habitats. Recycling is one of the most critical things we can do for our environment. It can cut down on the amount of plastic in landfills as well. Recycling plastic reduces the need to create more plastic, which also cuts down on oil use and pollutants being released into the air. In the time that recycling has become more popular, technology has advanced to create more job

To keep it as simple as possible, (K.I.S.S.) this topic involves the study of: 1. POLYMERS FROM PETROCHEMICALS & BIOMASS

When evaluating the environmental impact of polyethylene we need to take into consideration the input materials, and the amount of energy and emissions/wastes generated by the production processes. Although polyethylene presents fewer environmental hazards than other polymers, its production requires both hydrocarbons and chlorine; chlorine makes plastic’s impact on the environment even greater that it would if only hydrocarbons were required (Frosch & Gallopoulos, 1989). The use of non-renewable resources, chlorine and the energy-intensive nature of the production cycle itself together with the worldwide large-scale production of polyethylene and derivates, approximately 80 million metric tons per year (Piringer & Baner, 2008), make the environmental and human safety impact of polyethylene significant.

Not much people know, but polyester is also very harmful. The raw material itself is used to produce polyester oil. Unfortunately, oil belongs to the non-renewable category. With oil as one of the top resources needed in the world, polyester production is not sustainable. It is also non-biodegradable. In other words, oil is not decomposable. So when these textiles end up in a land-fill, it will remain there for a long period of time. About twelve billion pounds of post consumer textiles waste ends up in land-fills every year and half of them are polyester.

People would say that plastic in landfills would just stay there and if we keep on using plastic the waste problem would just worsen. I think that the problem here is why do people put plastics in landfills mixed with biodegradable materials. There are ways to properly recycle plastic. This comes to my third argument for why plastic beats paper. It is better because we could change its physical shape to things we really need. Richard Stein, from the University of Massachusetts, stated that plastics could be melted and formed into different structures such as propellers for wind turbines, food containers and many more [3]. Imagine being able to reuse plastic as long as the quality of it can still be recyclable, but if it isn’t anymore, Richard Stein also suggested that plastic could be converted to energy by burning it since it is made of petroleum [3].

Furthermore, polyester is in vast industrial use, in conveyor belts, in fibers, in ropes, in yarns, as well as in tire reinforcements.

There are many accidental scientific discoveries in history, a very pertinent one being polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) or Teflon. It is most popularly used on non-stick cookware, but is also used as a stain repellant, in the production of artificial body parts, as an electrical wire insulator, and as pipe lining to prevent corrosion, among others. Invented by Dr. Roy Plunkett, PTFE pushed the limits of innovation and has been used to improve human health. In recent years, controversy has risen as to the environmental effects PTFE has during production, and this has become a rising issue that is still being researched. While PTFE is considered serendipitous, a high degree of background knowledge on its components was needed in order to make conclusions as to what

For the purpose of creating dentures, many materials have thus far been used, amongst these, poly methylmethacrylate (PMMA) have become the most popularly used materials (Machado et al., 2007). However, this material does come with its set of drawbacks. Its moderate to low fracture strength is the most important drawback (Mumcu et al., 2011). The population that most commonly requires the use of dentures are the older age groups. In view of this, it can be stated that older people have reduced muscular control and hence results in accidents which cause fracture of the dentures (Stipho & Talic, 2001). One way this limitation of the PMMA can be overcome is to add metal frameworks to the denture structure. But even so, drawbacks such as metal corrosion, allergy to the metal, deformation, and also aesthetic concerns do exist. Besides this, there is also difficulty in the casting

By going to a website called, “postconsumer.com,” I found out that, “ Plastic bags don’t biodegrade, they photodegrade- breaking down into smaller and smaller toxic bits contaminating soil and waterways. They then enter the food web when animals accidentally ingest them,”( admin, para.8 ). In case you didn't know, the meaning of biodegrade is to decay and to become absorbed by the environment, while photodegrade is to be decomposed by the action of light, especially sun light. Plastic bags are very common in grocery stores. Sure they help us carry items, but plastic bags can do a lot of harm to the environment and to living animals, such as creating land fills and endangering six of seven species of sea turtles. Where I'm getting at is that

Song JH, (2009) states that “Many different materials are used for packaging including metals, glass, wood, paper or pulp, plastics or combinations of more than one material as composites” (p 364). What this means is that most of the packaging materials we use for packaging contain products that are very hard to de compose and end up in landfills. In order to achieve bio degradable packaging we should consider bioplastic polymers which “are generally still much higher than that of their traditional plastic counterparts” (364). Bioplastic polymers cost much more than regular polymers we use but, if we can help our planet and company become more environmental friendly, we should take that step and use bioplastic polymers for our

EcoSpun was started by the company Wellman Inc. and it completely changed how we view fabrics. These fabrics blend with other materials like cotton to make the product soft to the touch. Patagonia adopted this process to make recycled material that would help the environmental issues and make a really cool product. Yvon Chouinard founder of Patagonia is committed to making a change with pollution and to still have outerwear products that will last someone for many years. Chouinard and his team worked with Malden Mills to make the polyester out of recyclable bottles. There are billions of plastic bottles and they are harmful to the environment, Patagonia, as well as other companies, are taking them into make materials. As Chouinard company was helping with the environmental crisis and letting out millions of chemicals, he decided there had to be a change. His next steps are to find new recyclable fabrics as well as finding other ways to recycle polyester. Also, they are working to receive old Patagonia’s product to re-made into a fiber or other forms of

I found this chapter to be the most interesting so far, it fueled my concerns regarding the excessive use of plastic. Some of the statistics Feinkel shares are frightening, such as chemist Raymond Giguere’s, comparison of a year’s production of polyethylene equaling the mass of all the men, women and children in the United States. (62) This is alarming as we cannot continue to produce these materials on such a mass scale without considering the implications it has on our planet. Some forms of polyethylene take hundreds of years to degrade, this means the mess we make now will be left for generations to come to clean up. I have actually made a stand in my house, as the Mum of two young boys I no longer buy them those cheap, plastic toys that

It is a known fact the plastic is a non-biodegradable item. Non-biodegradable means that it cannot be decomposed by natural processes. As a result, plastic products persist and hence harm the environment.

With the combination of polymers that don’t biodegrade and mass overproduction, companies are harming the environment in severe ways. Plastic, a material seen everywhere, is a polymer made from oil. It is mass produced to make everything from shampoo bottles to automobiles and does not biodegrade. When it is eventually thrown out, the waste usually finds it way into the ocean, where it is either buried under sediment or eaten by marine life (Weisman 287-295). Creating a material that will ultimately kill marine life will undoubtedly wreak havoc on the

Polymers effect every ones life almost every day allowing us to make many valuable items that can help make our lives easier including plastic, PVC, and shellac there are also natural polymers that we benefit from such as rubber and amber. Polymers are truly a great and very beneficial item to everyone for they are tough, durable, and cheap but they are also recyclable which can be very beneficial to our environment and societal needs. The only negative effect is when it is not properly disposed but this is really the users fault not the actual item its self