comment: >
  
  
  Land used to grow plants for bioplastics didn't come from nowhere. It was either taken from land used to grow food
  
  Whats the negative for a field grown for export corn and turned into a field used for bioplastics?
  
  To meet current bioplastic demand, we'd need as much land as the size of Belgium. 
  
  The US has 895.3 million acres of current farm land, Belgium is 7.5 million acres. 
  90 million acres is used for corn, 15% of that is for exports, thats 13 million acres of existing farm land that can be converted to bioplastic. 
  We have nearly 2x the land you say we need
  
  I just wonder if it is practical enough to be used at large scales
  
  We throw away 40% of our food.
context: pastures are good for greenhouse gases and you don't have to destroy it to grow the plants for bioplastic
  
  I hate this argument evefytine it comes up 
  A pasture turned into a plant nursery for bio plastics is 100x a better option than having that land turned into a plastic bottle manufacturing plant 
  If we allow the use of plastic we will literally have to use thebland you say youbcsre so much about to manufacture the plastic. 
  Would you rather a field of plants or a field turned into a warehouse 
  You also posted zero sources as pointed our by another. 
  Disingenuous at best is what I'd call this post >
  
  
  A pasture turned into a plant nursery for bio plastics is 100x a better option than having that land turned into a plastic bottle manufacturing plant.
  
  The land needed to grow enough plants to produce plastic is far far less than the land used for a manufacturing facility. I'm also not sure why you think that bioplastics don't also need factories. >
  
  Yeah now let's think about this for a second. I know that's been difficult for you 
  If we just use plastic s then any new plastic mafucsturing at any level requires destruction of natural land yeah?
  Bioplastics while yes they do need land to grow the plants and they do need warehouses for manufacturing 
  Gasp imagine this. We use the shut down plastic Manufacturing plants and concert them to... you guessed it bioplastic plants. And we wow... imagine this... transport the bio plastic. To q warehouse that's already existed for 59 years to make bioplastics 
  See now I can't believe I'd have to but given your responses ima assume I should explain to you that a field full of plants is almost certainly better than continuing with plastic. Production and having fields turned to warehouses instead of being used as... fields 
  Thanks for coming to my Ted talk. Maybe read into agriculture and plastic production means before trying to post and defend a rant about them >
  
  You realize that doesn't make any sense.
  Lets compare 2 worlds. One where all plastic is made from plants and one where all plastic is made from oil.
  In a world with only traditional plastic you basically have the current world where the only land you need is to construct oil pumps and manufacturing facilities. 
  Now imagine a world that is exactly the same except plastic is only made from plants. You still need all the same manufacturing facilities except now you have to cultivate potentially millions of additional acres of land in order to produce the same amount of plastic.  
  You seem to think that bioplastics somehow require fewer factories when they'd need about the same amount. >
  
  
  You still need all the same manufacturing facilities except now you have to cultivate potentially millions of additional acres of land in order to produce the same amount of plastic. 
  
  You'd only use 1/3rd the power, less land for power stations. You don't need the oil refinery which are massive. You don't need the pipeline for transporting the oil to the refinery. The plants are a CO2 sinks, no oil spills, no groundwater contamination, no Lake Peigneur saltification etc. >
  
  I agree with all your points about energy and pollution. Those are probably what would sway the most. 
  I hope you can at least concede that bioplastics still require vastly more land. >
  
  
  Requiring more land != automatically bad
  
  In the context of the environment it definitely is. Land used to grow plants for bioplastics didn't come from nowhere. It was either taken from land used to grow food or some forest somewhere had to be cut down. If we didn't need bioplastics, that land could return to nature. To meet current bioplastic demand, we'd need as much land as the size of Belgium. 
  
  we can use the organic waste in cities/towns/whereever to create bioplastics 
  
  This is a great point. I just wonder if it is practical enough to be used at large scales.
  
  plants grown for the bioplastic are CO2 neutral and aren't throwing benzene into our air, which is a toxic carcinogen
  
  You don't need to keep making this argument I have already conceded to the polluting nature of oil. I do want to point out that bioplastics aren't pollution free. Farms used to grow plants for bioplastics tend to pollute heavily through heavy fertilizer and pesticide use.