You are viewing a single thread.
View all comments View context
5 points

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.

permalink
report
parent
reply
2 points

but in normal conditions it lasts as long as any other plastic.

I am by no means an expert on the subject, but isn’t this basically the entire problem with plastic in the first place?

It’s nice that this stuff is renewable and recyclable, but if it isn’t properly recycled, it sounds like we’re going to have the same problem we already have with existing plastics.

permalink
report
parent
reply
1 point

Yeah no, it’s only marginally better. All my information comes from 3d printing, which is even worse since there’s no way to recycle it since no recycling symbol. More accessible industrial composting would help though

permalink
report
parent
reply
1 point

there’s no way to recycle it since no recycling symbol

I wonder if you could get away with 3D printing the recycling symbol on whatever you’re printing. As long as the symbol/number match the materials I don’t see why it would be a problem.

permalink
report
parent
reply
0 points

PLA doesn’t last long. It starts to fall apart after a few months of exposure to sunlight in otherwise completely sterile environment. It is also easily compostable in hot industrial composters. It is also digestible by mammals, thus its micro particles are not an issue.

permalink
report
parent
reply

aww

!aww@lemmy.world

Create post

A place with minimal rules for stuff that makes you go awww! Feel free to post pics, gifs, or videos of cats, dogs, babies, or anything cute and remember to be kind to others.

AI posts must be labeled [AI] in the title and are limited to one per week.

While posting and commenting in this community, you must abide by instance-wide rules: https://mastodon.world/about

  • No racism or bigotry.
  • Be civil: disagreements happen, but thatdoes not provide the right to personally insult others.
  • No SPAM posting.
  • No trolling of others.

Community stats

  • 2.8K

    Monthly active users

  • 1.4K

    Posts

  • 8.5K

    Comments