this post was submitted on 07 Jul 2024
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If they used PLA(made of cornstarch) which is common for fdm 3d printing then theres no threat of microplastics from what ive read. it is biodegradable, but very slowly.
Makes sense. People that are serious about fish tanks don't mess around
Especially saltwater, that shits expensive
I doubt it's 100% cornsarch. I work in the plastics industry and there's all sorts of travesties going on. We also have a line of cornstarch-made products, but they're all scams when it comes to "recycling" and "being biodegradable".
There's definitely plastic in it.
Polylactic acid is made via condensation of lactic acid, which can be made entirely from corn. It's still plastic, but just made from renewable sources. It's pretty recyclable and can be industrially composted, but in normal conditions it lasts as long as any other plastic.
I am by no means an expert on the subject, but isn't this basically the entire problem with plastic in the first place?
It's nice that this stuff is renewable and recyclable, but if it isn't properly recycled, it sounds like we're going to have the same problem we already have with existing plastics.
Yeah no, it's only marginally better. All my information comes from 3d printing, which is even worse since there's no way to recycle it since no recycling symbol. More accessible industrial composting would help though
I wonder if you could get away with 3D printing the recycling symbol on whatever you're printing. As long as the symbol/number match the materials I don't see why it would be a problem.
PLA doesn't last long. It starts to fall apart after a few months of exposure to sunlight in otherwise completely sterile environment. It is also easily compostable in hot industrial composters. It is also digestible by mammals, thus its micro particles are not an issue.
I don't know what you are doing in the plastics industry, but it seems that you don't understand what words "biodegradable" and "plastic" mean.
PLA is biodegradable. Just only under industrial conposter conditions so yeah still a problem.
But a plastic is just a chain of polymers, it makes it difficult but not impossible to biodegradability depending on chemical and structure. Almost all plastics don't but some do
From what I've read PLA is only biodegradable under very specific conditions. I looked into it and you have to send it to a recycling center designed for PLA and its expensive to do so. I would assume microplastics would still be present too. Even though it can be sourced from plant matter its still plastic.
PLA is digestible, it doesn't pose a microplastic threat. If it gets into you, it'll become a part of your poop.