How to make biodegradable 'plastic' from cactus juice [video] | Hacker News Reader

How to make biodegradable 'plastic' from cactus juice [video]

bbc.co.uk

Looks similar to "kombucha leather": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ds8ZFzOwGeI

Wow! Thanks for linking this.

I do arts & crafts and I use some animal protein based products, leather and other non-vegan stuff and I am looking for vegan alternatives.

As for TFA, I'm aware of a product called "Cactus juice" used in woodworking for stabilization. Does anyone know if it is similar to what was shown in the video?

The stuff used in woodworking is a resin, just heavily diluted, so I guess it's the same thing just with additives. I once forgot to close the bottle of it properly, and next time I tried to use it (months later) it was all dried down into a plastic-like hard stuff.

I had some interest in that topic a few months ago, but still have some rather general questions. The idea sounds great, but it is hard to tell how helpful it is for the environment without doing some sort of a life-cycle assessment of the entire process. Question such as how sustainable is it if we need three cactus leaf to make one sheet.

Also, asking if someone might be able to answer or to point me where to read more. Is there a link between making plastic from plants and the plastic property of being non-toxic and/or biodegradable? Some plants are toxic, I would suppose this leads to toxic plastic. Same for biodegradability, how do we know the process of making plastic using plants (naturally biodegradable) plus other "things" leads to a plastic that is biodegradable?

Indonesia already a biodegradable plastic replacement (in production) called bio-cassava bag https://www.avanieco.com/portfolio-item/bio-cassava-bag/

Interesting. Most ‘biodegradable’ plastic isn’t going to be very helpful as far as I have understood. See link below. This one seems to really biodegradable, but like with any of these materials it’s the industrial process that will define its success potential.

http://theconversation.com/when-biodegradable-plastic-is-not...

No real mention of its properties...

For example, Is it waterproof? If I were to package meat in a film of the stuff, would it start dissolving into the meat?

It says it degrades after a few days left in water, so not really viable to replace plastic bottles

But a great replacement for plastic grocery bags. And packaging for dry goods.

It doesn't have to replace ALL plastic uses. It's perfectly fine if it's just a replacement for specific uses.

Eg. Using a glass bottle instead of a plastic bottle

> How to

Can't decide whether this is a clickbait or "rest of the fucking owl"

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