Myth: bioplastics will solve the trashproblem

It doesn’t take you very long to find the consequences of the plastic soup in the ocean. The internet is filled with images of sea turtles with sixpack-rings around their shell, seals covered in shredded plastic bags and beaches littered with plastic bottles. Bioplastic, which accounts for only 2 percent of the total amount of plastic, seems to be the logical solution. If all the materials come from nature, it can’t harm nature. But that’s too simple of a thought according to Yvonne van der Meer, Associate Professor Sustainability of Biobased Materials.