Do the prints slowly release microplastics into the water that kill the urchins?
About the same level of concern that feeding your dog dry food is. If not even smaller.
If they used PLA(made of cornstarch) which is common for fdm 3d printing then theres no threat of microplastics from what ive read. it is biodegradable, but very slowly.
From what I’ve read PLA is only biodegradable under very specific conditions. I looked into it and you have to send it to a recycling center designed for PLA and its expensive to do so. I would assume microplastics would still be present too. Even though it can be sourced from plant matter its still plastic.
I doubt it’s 100% cornsarch. I work in the plastics industry and there’s all sorts of travesties going on. We also have a line of cornstarch-made products, but they’re all scams when it comes to “recycling” and “being biodegradable”.
There’s definitely plastic in it.
I don’t know what you are doing in the plastics industry, but it seems that you don’t understand what words “biodegradable” and “plastic” mean.
Polylactic acid is made via condensation of lactic acid, which can be made entirely from corn. It’s still plastic, but just made from renewable sources. It’s pretty recyclable and can be industrially composted, but in normal conditions it lasts as long as any other plastic.
