That's what I wanted to know. This is a huge improvement over current products that, while still plant-based, aren't really biodegradable because they have to be processed in an industrial composting facility. For products that need to be durable only in the short term (e.g. takeout containers), this will be great!

[–] LimeZest@discuss.tchncs.de 11 points 5 months ago (2 children)

The question then becomes how well does this work in place of traditional plastics? Does it have the same strength and water resistance? It needs to hold up to moisture in order to be used for takeout. If food partially breaks it down, people will be ingesting it so toxicity is also a concern. It will be interesting to see where this goes. Even if it can only replace shopping bags, that will still be a huge improvement. So many bags blow away in the wind and I live in an area that made it illegal for cities to ban single use shopping bags.

[–] jlow@beehaw.org 7 points 5 months ago

Toxicity might also be a concern if you compost it by throwing it into nature. This is my big gripe with all these alternatives: Are they less harmful than (micro)plastic?

[–] ryannathans@aussie.zone 1 points 4 months ago

Just consider how incredibly toxic gluten is for a lot of people, this wheat and barley plastic is going to literally poison a sizable portion of the population

[–] reddig33@lemmy.world 13 points 5 months ago (1 children)

There are lots of biodegradable plastic alternatives now. I wish there were more government incentives to use them. Outlawing or taxing the hell out of single-use non biodegradable plastics in non-medical uses would help.

[–] Num10ck@lemmy.world 3 points 5 months ago

maybe we should robocall every Nestle employee every 5 minutes asking about it.

[–] TrudeauCastroson@hexbear.net 10 points 5 months ago

This is actually a bigger deal than the headline suggests if the claims are to be believed. Hopefully the licensing isn't too expensive for it to be widely adopted if manufacturing at scale is easy.

They don't say how it degrades in water, but if it can degrade in ~2months outdoors then that's actually pretty good.

Most biodegradable eco-plastic is a scam because it's either only partially degradable, or only degradable in industrial facilities. If I can throw this packaging in my own compost bin then that would be a huge way to get rid of single-use plastic.

[–] lurch@sh.itjust.works 8 points 4 months ago

it may be helpful in some cases, but often plastic is so successful because it's not biodegradable. if insects, bacteria and fungi have a hard time eating through it, it's a container that can protect the contents from them. it's difficult to replace withpout losing that ability, especially when it is preferred to be transparent (as in see-through) as well

[–] DemBoSain@midwest.social 4 points 4 months ago

We already have "biodegradable" plastic made from corn starch. It's not truly biodegradable, I reserve the right to wait for more information about whether barley starch is any better.

[–] ryannathans@aussie.zone 3 points 4 months ago

This is the dumbest shit out, we already have fuck loads of biodegradable plastic. Now we have highly allergenic gluten plastic that a sizeable portion of the population is highly allergic to

[–] therealjcdenton@lemmy.zip 2 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

Another great discovery that will curiously disappear within a year