The Substitution of Petroleum-Based Polymers with a Sustainable Organic Alternative
By
Dylan M. Gronley
Feb 23 2020 0800 EST
There is a vast problem plaguing 21st century society right now, it is the problem of what to do with all our trash; more specifically trash of the plastic variety. The problem has been increasing steadily over the last 50 years and will continue to rise if something is not done about it. There seems to be a lot more awareness now as I’m writing this in 2020 than in even the last 5 years, and while awareness is great, action is even better, and I don’t believe there is enough action happening. This is a grave problem that I don’t believe people grasp the real action it necessitates. For example, if we really are to cut back on our plastic waste, pretty much in every aspect of our lives we will have to change something we’ve been doing for as long as most of us can remember. We will have to stop using plastic bags, stop receiving our food in plastic containers, stop using plastic hygienic products etc.
Now of course we can’t expect the consumer to just stop doing all this, that would be a massive inconvenience to them, and human nature dictates much resistance in such situations. Where does that leave us? It falls onto the manufacturers and the companies producing these products to offer an alternative that makes sense. Whether this push is exacerbated by governmental regulations or just marketed as a better solution in the environment’s sake remains to be seen, in my opinion it would be the former that would have the greatest effect on the general population. This would then require companies to, through funding done by themselves or through government subsidies, spend massive amounts of money on the research and development of these substitutes and then mass produce them to the consumers. This doesn’t seem very probable with the current state of affairs and if this is indeed the future of materials used for massive general consumption, then would it not be beneficial to get started now rather than later? I believe so.
In that case, if we went the governmental regulation route, these restrictions would need to be put in place soon, with the current president I do not believe this issue lies high on his priority list. Of course, that is always subject to change depending on the incentives and the public outcry for positive change, but current attitudes do not reflect a strong desire to change anything. If someone were to independently develop a viable alternative and then receive investments and thereby start a company, one could file for a patent and sell this product to MANY companies currently using regular plastic materials. This could be a VERY large market and has potential to be a very large industry; I will elaborate my thoughts on that later. Most of the plastic produced in the world comes from Asia where there are very few regulations in place on waste disposal. This is bad. The only way I see regulations being implemented there is through either an international regulatory committee, i.e. the United Nations, or by the rest of the world shaming them into adopting an alternative. Again, the former seems to be the more likely of the two.
I am so tired of seeing plastic pollution littering our fragile ecosystems. I loathe using plastic products and purchasing them, and there are very few solid alternatives that are readily available everywhere we shop. This inspires me to create an alternative and introduce it to the world. However, I feel as if there is already so much media and political attention brought to the problem, that there must be many people working on such a solution and my efforts would be in vain. By the time I would be in a position to provide such a solution, certainly someone with more resources and more knowledge on the subject would prevail with a better alternative. Yet, if that would have been the attitude of the great entrepreneurs of the past, then undoubtedly no company would have ever been formed. If that is the case, then, where would I begin? I am no chemist with knowledge of material sciences, and I am most definitely not a systems engineer with knowledge of production techniques. Are these necessary to solve this problem? I am under the belief that they are not; although it would hasten the problem-solving process.
If a solution were to present itself it ideally would replace all current non decomposable plastic in production, be environmentally friendly to produce and dispose of, and would be equal or better than the previous plastic it is replacing. In my eyes, the solution would be made of some organic material that can be woven on a molecular level to have the same flexibility and versatility of regular petroleum-based plastic. Okay, so modern plastics are made of a string of hydrocarbons, most common now are petrochemicals derived from petroleum and its family members. This allows plastic to be very inexpensive in production. This also allows the polymers to be very versatile as they do not react with other chemicals. Alright, so we need an organic material that is non-reactive; in other words neutral as far as acidity and alkalinity values go. Anything too far on the scale will not allow for a wide range of applications. So, we can take an organic substance, let’s just say as a hypothetical, material A. This material A that we’ve engineered, has a molecular structure that is condensed enough to provide a rigid yet flexible manipulation of the material and can contain many types of substances. Also, when disposed of, material A will decompose in an adequate time frame leaving no toxic or harmful residuals. Whatever this material is made of would need to be mass produced and come from a sustainable source, otherwise what’s the point. But, when this material does successfully replace petroleum-based plastics, the revolution will happen swiftly and completely, much like revolutionary inventions of the past have. For example, computers replacing typewriters, automobiles replacing horses, airplanes replacing ships for long distance travel, etc. This new material will permeate in every aspect of our lives, from our cups, to our medical supplies, our restaurant materials, our packaging, and our leisure. It will have to replace all the food wrappers in millions of vending machines, all the millions of water bottles, all the single-use straws and Styrofoam cups EVERYWHERE.
Generations of the future will undoubtedly look back on these critical years of the 21st century and see the plague of plastics remaining visible for THOUSANDS of years. Single-use plastics will be in museums with plaques that read, “Early 21st century single-use water bottle. These bottles were used for a variety of applications, primarily for hydration. Unfortunately, this was before the invention of (material A) and billions of these bottles littered the oceans, landfills, and anywhere humans were located.” They will see us as consumeristic, materialistic, and wasteful. It’s so easy for us to look back on previous centuries and say, “Wow they really thought it was okay to own slaves, or it was fine to travel for MONTHS on a half sinking ship to get here.” Yet, when the future looks on us, they will say, “Wow they really thought it was fine to just dump all of their trash into massive mountains of garbage.” Or, “Crazy how they would just use up all of these plastics once and throw them away.”
Substantial research will need to be done on the chemical engineering side of things as well as materials and industrial characteristics. In the meantime, however, I will play a bigger part in local research efforts. I did attend a screening of “A Plastic Ocean”, a documentary on the worldwide plastic problem. I highly recommend watching it, it is on Netflix as of February 2020. Then, a professor from the University of Florida gave a short lecture on current research and microplastics in our local environment which was fantastic. This provided me with several opportunities I look forward to pursuing. I will do more research on the subject and provide another post in the future.
Citations
Parker, Laura, and Jason Treat. “Fast Facts about Plastic Pollution.” National Geographic, 20 Dec. 2018, www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2018/05/plastics-facts-infographics-ocean-pollution/.
