[Verdex]

To add to your point. New R&D for plastics is probably where the solution to microplastics is going to come from.

Some researcher building the next superplastic pauses to say "hey that's funny" and bam we've got a new formula that completely prevents the formation of microplastics.

Artificially constraining development is a great way to either miss an important direction of research that will unknowingly solve our problems OR just kill the industry leaving us with our existing plastics that degrade into microplastics.

Of course new developments should definitely run a microplastics study to make sure we don't make the situation worse. However "no more this until that" is a great way to freeze ourselves into our current less than ideal state for decades longer than we have to be here.

[cromka]

> Some researcher building the next superplastic pauses to say "hey that's funny" and bam we've got a new formula that completely prevents the formation of microplastics.

My understanding is that microplastics are a result of regular wear and tear, and I don't think a material exist that is immune to that. If anything, a new plastic formula may be created that hardens it enough to reduce the shedding to a negligible level.

[thayne]

The solution might be a plastic that naturally decomposes. Of course, that would likely make the material less durable...

[donkarma]

so your solution is to make the microplastics smaller?

[cromka]

Struggling to understand how did infer that from my take?