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Comment by delfinom | Hacker News Reader

You are repeating FUD. There is no soy in the final plastic.

The plastic is derived from soy that serves as a cheap source of organic molecules, but it's converted into polymers no different from petroleum based plastics.

Did you know that most wall paint is made from corn? It's hyper processed into latex.

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From page 12:

https://www.judicialhellholes.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/01...

>This soy-based insulated wiring was touted as being more "environmentally friendly" due to, inter alia, the biodegradable nature of the soy-based insulation as compared to traditional plastic insulation.

While it is no doubt possible to process biochemicals into petrochemical-equivalent synthetic polymers, it appears that at least one law firm doesn't believe that happened here. And they go on to claim that Honda had claimed they were using biodegradable insulation, which a traditional wire generally is not.

There's something. Little guys could have more easily chewed on the harness for my trailer hitch, for example, or the main harness - thankfully they didn't, it might have totaled the vehicle - but went for the new stuff.

There's enough anecdotal evidence to warrant a real experiment on whether rodentia prefer new plastics over old.

My dad lost two sets of sparkplug wires to pack rats [0], circa 2016-2017. I recall him sharing that the auto store staff told him the bioplastics used to insulate the wires tastes like peanuts. He switched to a different brand, and didn't lose another set.

Searching now I found this website about the soy-based wire problem: https://www.howtopreventratsfromeatingcarwires.com/2017/02/1...

[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42074028

Then why do the rodents only eat wires on new vehicles? This is a recent phenomenon, like within the last ~15yr of vehicle manufacturing. Cars and equipment older than that don't get their wires chewed up.

Source: talking to auto mechanics and people who operate fleets of construction equipment.

Rodents have been eating the wires of cars forever. This is not a recent phenomenon. All of my 6 cars range from 1980-2000 and most of them have had an infestation at one point or another and I have repaired chewed wires in a couple of them. I've heard soooooo many stories from old people of mice getting into cars and eating wiring, it's been a problem since we've had cars.

Interesting, I've had rodents eat fiberglass and fiberboard materials in my cars but never wiring.

Maybe it is mostly FUD, but it does not mean it is impossible. Yes, soy-based plastics are very processed, but it does not mean that the end product has no impurities that "smell" like soy. Rodents have very sensitive smell and some can even detect landmines. Also, plastics made solely from biomaterial or with bio-based components (e.g. plasticizers) are not (always) chemically exactly similar to petroleum-based plastics.

I found one research article from 2020 titled "Assessing Rodent Gnawing of Elastomers Containing Soybean Oil Derivatives". It did not find statistically significant difference in rodents gnawing when soy oil derivates were added to plastics. Maybe they have found a way to remove the tasty components.

https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acssuschemeng.0c05868

>You are repeating FUD. There is no soy in the final plastic.

Did the parent edit his comment? I don't see any mention about soy, only "tasty bits".

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