As lawmakers around the world weigh bans of 'forever chemicals,” many manufacturers are pushing back, saying there often is no substitute.
As lawmakers around the world weigh bans of 'forever chemicals,” many manufacturers are pushing back, saying there often is no substitute.
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I support this approach. Any company manufacturing products which are not readily biodegradable must put in place a scheme to capture and render that product inert before they’re allowed to sell it.
New type of plastic that can’t be recycled? Better figure out a recycling process and sort out the logistics of implementing that process wherever you intend to sell it.
Chemicals in your cleaning agent that don’t break down harmlessly after a reasonable time frame? Either re-engineer your chemicals until they do, or develop a process to prevent them ending up in the waterways.
Can’t do that? You arent manufacturing it.
Steel is not biodegradable, so your plan means the end of nearly all manufacturing. I doubt it will be adopted.
But steel is recyclable.
Stainless steel, even with its anti-corrosion properties, will eventually break down over thousands of years from the effects of weathering. So it’s technically biodegradable, but not really on our timescale, I guess.
Edit: Steel is not biodegradable, because it can’t be broken down by biological processes. I was confused on the word.
Biodegradable does not mean susceptible to weathering. It means susceptible to bacterial decomposition.
Oh, okay and thanks for the correction. It makes sense now that i actually look at the word. I just always assumed it meant things that can be decomposed by the environment.
Yeah, there was a point in time where none were used. To say there isn’t an alternative is to say this isn’t true. They might not like it, but we don’t require whatever they’re producing with it.
There was a point in time we didn’t have smartphones either. Just because they weren’t used before doesn’t mean we don’t need them in modern society. Developing an alternative that works just as well just needs gut funding boost to get there.