[lstamour]

Anything that can be made from paper, should be. Primarily bags, shipping containers, product packaging, etc. I've seen Amazon replace plastic bubble wrap with paper-based bubble wrap, for example. They use really fine bits of paper and presumably glue to create the "bubbles".

Instead of using plastic to wrap shipping containers, you could use a more re-usable material. Or perhaps we could come up with cardboard "rings" or other techniques to keep stuff together instead of wrapping it in plastic.

We might have to use more soap or other sterilization techniques, but where practical, using glass containers and aluminum cans would still make sense. I'm certain that if plastic single-use containers were eliminated in convenience stores for a country, we'd see a switch to cans, glass and waxed paper instead, almost overnight. Same as in alcohol stores, perhaps.

[maxwell]

True to a point, but plastic and the cloud were transitioned to for many things a few years ago because of "saving trees". And then overused to the point of surpassing paper's previous carbon output.

Calling to mind palm oil, adopted as more healthy and sustainable. And then also over-done.

Disposability seems a deeper issue: a retreat to forest products doesn't seem the solution.

The fish-catching clear plastic rings that you throw away, or cut up, are bad, the cardboard packaging coated in paints is bad, but the craft beer heavy duty Paktech rings [1] and Roberts' Craft-Paks [2] seem harbingers of a more reusable + indefinably recyclable future, regardless ultimately of the specific materials involved.

A piece of the wider craft brewery innovation of the '10s in the U.S. [3]

1. https://paktech-opi.com

2. https://shop.robertspolypro.com/collections/craft-pak

3. https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2018/01/craft-b...

[galangalalgol]

Cans for food is iffy, without the liners doesn't it disintegrate the metal? Jars work well and can be reused. Bring back deposits!

[shard]

Cans for food is actually one thing I would like to see addressed with an alternative. With how ubiquitous cans are, it was a source of plastic in contact with foods that is difficult to avoid.

[perl4ever]

I wonder if tiny bits of solidified glue (plus paper, wood fibers, etc) in the environment are much better than tiny bits of plastic?

[redisman]

Yes. Nature has evolved ways to dispose of those (unless it’s a synthetic glue that doesn’t decompose)

[perl4ever]

What characterizes a "synthetic" glue, chemically?

Don't glues generally involve polymers, like plastics?