Why dont we have biodegradable plastic yet?

Question

In the grocery stores, they charge you a couple cents now to use plastic bags for your groceries to cut down on environmental pollution; but this sounds really stupid to me, when they could just invent biodegradable plastic that actually breaks down instead. With everything else scientists have created, you would think this wouldnt be so hard to do.

Answer 1

I think we do but it is probably harder to create and more expensive so manufacturers wouldn't use it over the cheap regular plastic

Answer 2

Because hemp is still illegal.

Answer 3

Or you can bring reusable bags with you made of natural fibres ...

Answer 4

There is " biodegradable" plastic, but it does not just disappear or become dirt. It breaks down into tiny particles that are still a pollutant.

Answer 5

We do but it has to be exposed to sunlight to degrade and it doesn't chemically breakdown, just crumbles into micro-pieces that are still an environmental problem.

Answer 6

We do, but it is expensive and unreliable.

Answer 7

Plastic items left out in the sun light do degrade, BADLY

Answer 8

It does exist, very rare but I've defiantly seen bio-degradable bin liners before.

DO NOT mistake degradable and bio-degradable . degradable never truly breaks down, only into small pieces.

Answer 9

They have. The problem is that it starts degrading before you use the bags.....

There are also GMO bacteria that can break down the plastic, but they are hard to control.

And anyways, paper bags work better, if you don't get them wet.

Answer 10

I had exactly the same question, except it was about the price of lettuce these days