Page "Zero waste" Paragraph 22

Biodegradable plastic is the most prominent example.

One side argues that biodegradation of plastic is wasteful because plastic is expensive and environmentally damaging to make.

Whether made of starch or petroleum, the manufacturing process expends all the same materials and energy costs.

Factories are built, raw materials are procured, investments are made, machinery is built and used, humans labor and make use of all normal human inputs for education, housing, food etc.

Even if the plastic is biodegraded after a single use, all of those costs are lost so it is much more important to design plastic parts for multiple reuse or perpetual lives.

The other side argues that keeping plastic out of a dump or the sea is the sole benefit of interest.