>>12101508I mean, what the hell are we supposed to do?
Let me explain what my problem is. Plastics are a fucking disaster, and they're being used for EVERYTHING. Packaging of all sorts, all kinds of stupid bullshit products, single use and disposable things etc. But the plastic returns to the environment but the environment has no method for integrating it. It just stays as plastic, except getting broken up by mechanical forces until its microscopic, and then it is able to invade the biology of practically every living thing. This shit's in your water, maybe even in your bloodstream. We don't know what the long term affects of this will be.
I see the potential for wood and bamboo based products, especially with regards to being able to massively cut out the wasteful and disgusting usage of plastics. Returning to materials made from things that grow would allow us to circularize our products. Once it is no longer needed for its intended purposes, it can return to the environment and be useful rather than destructive.
Yet, as everyone is clearly aware, the demand for wood and such materials is already far too high for us to sustain, and certainly NO one argues that destroying forested areas is catastrophic. At the moment, pushing that demand higher would only make things worse.
The only way we can survive long term is to move towards a circular economy which makes use of materials that can return to the environment, which plastics and other such things cannot do. I also think that a wood/plant based paradigm for products and materials would allow us to start pulling carbon out of the atmosphere if forests were being rebuilt, cut, and rebuilt again repeatedly.
