> I'm not aware of any major use of plastic where going backwards in time is on-net more environmentally friendly.
My guess would be fishing nets. These are the main source of plastic pollution in the ocean.
My guess would be fishing nets. These are the main source of plastic pollution in the ocean.
Per unit length of netting with the equivalent strength, cotton/hemp netting will weigh more, require more frequent replacement, require horrible preservatives which will leach into the marine environment, require more fossil fuels to till and fertilize the cotton, consume more freshwater in production, result in more top soil loss due to mono-cropping, need more pesticides, etc.
Direct plastic pollution in the ocean would be reduced yes, but at the cost of higher pollution and environmental degradation elsewhere.
Humans nor nature have a way of dealing with the myriad of plastics and the way it degrades (or doesn’t).
“Horrible preservatives” sounds like injecting FUD. Hemp also doesn’t require fertile soil, so the fertilization overhead is also less.
While there are use-cases where plastic is indispensible, it’s outweighed by the completely asinine usecases.