this post was submitted on 11 May 2024
486 points (98.4% liked)

science

14786 readers
50 users here now

A community to post scientific articles, news, and civil discussion.

rule #1: be kind

<--- rules currently under construction, see current pinned post.

2024-11-11

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] JovialMicrobial@lemm.ee 4 points 6 months ago (2 children)

I wonder why we shifted away from things like waxed paper milk cartons(like the small ones you'd get in school) and waxed butcher paper?

Is waxed paper/cardboard product really that much more expensive than plastic in terms of packaging?

[–] ricdeh@lemmy.world 5 points 6 months ago (2 children)

Here in Germany, all milk is still distributed in cardboard packages

[–] maniii@lemmy.world 2 points 6 months ago (1 children)

you mean cardboard packages with plastic linings ?

[–] Wanderer@lemm.ee 1 points 6 months ago (1 children)

They are a fucking nightmare to recycle. You'll be lucky if they get burnt and I mean that.

[–] maniii@lemmy.world 2 points 6 months ago

Yep. You can get it composted quickly enough, you can get the plastic film out of the composting bin, but the microplastics are already seeped in and contaminated the biomass.

[–] Sidyctism@feddit.de 1 points 6 months ago

Yeah, but the inner lining of tetrapacks is plastic

[–] Aux@lemmy.world 0 points 6 months ago

Because wax production has numerous negative impacts on the environment: higher energy costs (which lead to higher product costs), deforestation (in case of soy or palm based wax), impact on bee population (in case of bee wax), etc.

Plastics are just better materials for pretty much everything.