> Not a chemist, but AFAIK current market available 'biostarch polymers' (AFAIK always PLA; which may be marketed as made from corn, sugar cane, etc.) are actually extremely environmentally unfriendly because of the massive embodied energy required to create the industry-ready polymer from the bio-waste material. Their single benefit is nominal biodegradability.Also not a chemist, but this is reminiscent of "bamboo" fabric that is just Rayon made from bamboo cellulose instead of wood pulp cellulose.
As such, it can be a bit more environmentally friendly to produce, and amenable to production in a closed-loop facility, but isn't any more recyclable or biodegradable:
Eg. From 'Abundance of microplastics in the world's deep seas'[0]:
"Rayon -- a humanmade non-plastic polymer used in personal hygiene products and clothing -- contributed to 56.9% of the total fibres seen, with polyester, polyamides, acetate and acrylic among the others recorded."
Which isn't at all the same thing as fabrics made from actual bamboo fibers (often called 'bamboo linen').
The whole 'greenwashing' thing is super annoying to me, because even when regulating agencies are doing their job properly, so much wiggle-room is left for what marketers are allowed to imply with entirely true statements.
eg. The label lists the fiber content as 'bamboo rayon', and the marketing says "made from environmentally friendly and biodegradable bamboo!", Which glosses over that the process used to turn the bamboo INTO rayon may not have been environmentally friendly, or that while rayon is biodegradable, sort of, if it's in a landfill it's going to stick around a long time.
And then I try to imagine consumer labelling requirements for all materials, sources, methods, and lifecycles, or summarizing these into a simple environmental score, and despair.
[0] https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/12/141216212253.h...