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Climate Solutions

Why glass, paper and other options aren’t the simple alternative to plastic that they seem to be

Finding a good alternative to plastic — a ubiquitous material that’s inexpensive, robust and versatile — hasn’t been easy

By
June 7, 2023 at 6:30 a.m. EDT
Plastic bottles at a Kenyan recycling facility. A lot of plastic does not get recycled “because so much of our plastic products just cannot be recycled,” said a spokesperson for a national group seeking to end plastic pollution. (Daniel Irungu/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock)
5 min

The list of plastic substitutes seems to be growing longer by the day as companies come up with novel products such as cling wrap made from potato waste, seaweed-based food wrappers and cassava starch bags.

That’s in addition to efforts to package more products in everyday alternative materials, such as glass, metal and paper.