Comment by lapetitejort
4 hours ago
The point is that we may not have plastic forever. Oil is a finite resource. An easy, cheap replacement hasn't been found yet. Either we abide by reducing and reusing (where we should be focused), or we should actually recycle.
We will have plastics forever.
It will become more expensive when we have to pay for the energy embedded in it, but the difference is not significative on almost any end-product.
Oil is a finite resource, although we keep finding new deposits so the numbers on "we only have 10 years left!" tend to be hyperbolic.
With our current exposure, it is estimated that 40-50 years worth of oil remains, although there is likely to be new locations found and an overall reduction of oil usage in the coming years.
PLA plastic as commonly used in 3d printers comes from plant materials not oil. We know how to make any plastic from pure CO2 (and whatever else needed for the atoms) - however the massive amount of energy needed to do so makes it uneconomical.
Also celluloid (made from cellulose), which I was pretty surprised to learn is about 170 years old. Plastics from oil were mostly invented after WWI and took off during WWII, but they had some kinds before that.
The catalysts used in industrial PLA manufacturing processes use chemicals derived from propane.