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Isn't it amazing that we can make a material that is simply too good?

(I have some plastic toys from the 1960's that are too fragile to touch. My 1972 Dodge has some synthetic foam insulation under the dash that turns to powder when touched. Maybe we already have the needed technology, it is just forgotten.)

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Are the long-chain molecules "disassembled", or did they just turn into billions of plastic nano-particles? Out of sight, out of mind? Something falling into tiny pieces isn't necessarily a good thing. For plastics, we want the actual molecules to degrade to something that can enter the usual organic circles of life (the biochemical pathways in various organisms).

^ this, I saw a video recently about it. Plastic does break down, but it turns into microplastics that find their way into and up through the food chain.

Might have been this one? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RS7IzU2VJIQ&t=0s

> "Isn't it amazing that we can make a material that is simply too good?"

Um. Is it? Whatever happened to: Just because you can doesn't mean you should.

Also, good is subjective. What would be more accurate is: make a material that currently does not breakdown naturally. We know this. But we keep making it instead of reusing what we already have.

Amazing? Or amazingly short-sighted?

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