Bioplastic Fantastic: Why we don't need oil for plastics | Kathryn Sheridan | TEDxGhent

[@raduantoniu]

Bioplastics are great but I think replacing plastic whenever possible is a better choice. According to European Bioplastics, in 2017 the world produced 2.05 million tonnes of plant-based plastic from 0.82 million hectares of land. To make 335 million tonnes (which is how much plastic we made in 2017) we would need 134 million hectares of land. That means 1.3 million square kilometers. That’s a square with the side length of 1140 kilometers/700 miles. Another complication is that the crops we would grow on that land would require vast amounts of nitrogen fertilizers. Corn usually needs ~150 kg of nitrogen fertilizer per hectare to grow optimally but sugarcane, soy and other plants don’t need fertilizer at all. Let’s assume we would apply 50kg of fertilizer per hectare. For 134 million hectares that would be 6.7 million tonnes of ammonia. About half of those nitrogen fertilizers leach into water and eventually end up in the ocean where they create dead zones due to eutrophication. They also create nitrogen oxides which are 300 times more potent greenhouse gases than CO2. Also, contrary to what the term bioplastic suggests, not all plastics made from plants are biodegradable. In fact, most aren't. So little pieces of plastic would still end up in the ocean making more plastic soup and killing more wildlife. Actually when we draw the line we may see that making plastics from plants can lead to worse environmental degradation than making it from oil. From my perspective a better idea would be to reduce plastic use as much as possible - use only where it is truly necessary, not for food packaging, trinkets, and disposable items.

[@vespadavidson2315]

Radu Antoniu Good points. This argument simply hasn’t been thought through. Liberal waffle...sounds good, but no substance. She’s the kind of person with a second house and swimming pool in the country pretending to care about the world because she has a “Bag for Life”!!

[@Morticia147]

I love your vision and hope to see it hapen....

[@cradlemountainmayfly]

We need to develope seaweedfarms which will be the best thing ever for the Oceans, to make oir plastic like wrappings.

[@dinafransiska5028]

hi, my research is make bioplastic from red seaweed

[@cradlemountainmayfly]

@@dinafransiska5028 Can you tell me more and send me links to info and your work? Congratulations. I appreciate your research choice.

[@davidlepine3757]

I am looking to source a small plastic film/bag packaging for a product that I produce. Would like the material to be clear, so the consumer can see the contents. What would be the best type of bioplastic to used that would break naturally? I did some research and am having trouble finding a clear solution to this.

[@aboutstudies123]

Thank you Madam

[@kevthepoet]

"We need plastics". Yes, we're addicted to our smart phones, but we don't have to accept that. Anyway, I'd much rather have a smart phone made from biodegradable hemp fibre plastic anyway.

[@MrDEVILZDADY]

Agree! The question is how to make hemp based plastic/polymer

[@duggydugg3937]

24 dislikes Monsanto Dupont Mobil plasinc

[@duggydugg3937]

bravo.. plant plas.. biodeg

[@oscarms1021]

just a bad presentation... so small infomation shared in 7min, the idea we want to know in these talks are how! not a vision

[@khelbritt9081]

If you were listening to the talk you would have heard that by using sugars in plants like wheat or corn for example and adding yeast to create a purification process.

[@duggydugg3937]

how bout a sample ? ? ?

[@duggydugg3937]

who is making bioplas in sme sort of volume ?

[@westkomer5570]

Just stop with the dam plastic. Use metals glass and wood products. Start making clothes out of plant fibers only. No more plastic clothing or material. No more plastic carpet.

[@duggydugg3937]

is Bakelite an oil plastic ?

[@juandavidsolorzamedina895]

this is the worst TEDx Talks that I've ever seen. What a wrong vision about the plastics and bioplastics, to many conceptas without a real background. Really bad speech.

[@stauffap]

Everything is a chemical! This is basic chemistry knowledge. What makes something bad for humans or the enviroment doesn't depend on whether it's natural or made by the chemical industry. There are thousands of plants that will kill you and thousands of "natural" foods that have negative side-effects. Just like there are thousands of synthetic chemicals that improve our lives. So what people should be talking about is the enviromental impact or the health impacts of things instead of making this silly comment about something being a "chemical" and therefore bad. It's really shows a lack of education and a lack of the most basic knowledge. Otherwise i agree with her talk...

[@animalloverjulian8243]

Why don't we just use metal and recycle it rather than plastics that kill sea life