What is the cost ratio of biodegradable plastic wrt regular plastic? If the cost is comparable, all effort needs to be made to spread the awareness and replace wherever possible
Lots of RD work have been put on biodegradable polymers. They have conferences, publications, etc. While they have contributed a lot of attention in the academics, the commercial launch of these materials have been quite limited. The cost is still higher than traditional plastics. Also, some of them are difficult to process and fabricate using the current equipment at the customers, or they do not do as good a job as the traditional plastics. In the meantime, the education and awareness should be focus on the reduction of excessive packaging, one-use throw away grocery shopping bags, etc. encouraging consumers to bring their own shopping bags are the better way to reduce the environmental impact from plastics.
There is a benefit to them being biodegradable, at least when they break down in the landfill they won't be toxic, but they are only marginally better than regular plastic. The real solution we need to be looking for is less plastic. It is the least recyclable and the largest component of what we put in a landfill.
Considering the early technology and lack of hugh scale of production, there must be 20 to 50 times difference in per unit cost. Getting real numbers to compare will be difficult.
