Grapevine canes can be converted into plastic-like material that will decompose

What’s Actually New Here (or Not)

• Many commenters argue the “grapevine plastic” is just another cellulose film, similar in outcome to cellophane / early movie film / rayon, whose clarity and flexibility have been known for a century.
• Others note the paper’s real novelty appears to be a rayon-like process using less harsh chemicals, not the basic material itself.
• Some defend the work as useful incremental research and a good example of turning agricultural waste into higher‑value products.

Material Properties and Use Cases

• Key metrics from the paper cited: ~84% transparency, 15–18 MPa tensile strength, and biodegradation in 17 days in moist soil.
• Several people see potential for short‑lived packaging (produce bags, inner wraps) where rapid breakdown is a feature.
• Others say 17 days is too fast; degradation is continuous, so a film that decomposes that quickly might start weakening or shedding into food well before disposal.
• Moisture and heat resistance are flagged as critical; lack of robust waterproofing is presented as the main reason cellulose hasn’t displaced plastics.

Plastic Pollution: Where to Focus

• One camp claims consumer packaging is a sideshow compared to industrial waste, fishing gear, and mismanaged “recycling” exports; they see projects like this as “ecomasturbation” that diverts attention from bigger levers.
• Another camp counters that any reduction of single‑use plastics helps, especially items prone to littering (bags, wraps); they also stress upstream volume reduction, not just ocean cleanup.
• There’s debate over burning plastics: some say modern incinerators are a “slam dunk”; others highlight toxins, heavy metals in mixed waste, and greenhouse gases.

Economics, Scale, and Grape Supply

• Skeptics doubt grapevine waste can scale meaningfully versus global plastic output; vines are geographically limited and pruning waste is a relatively small, periodic stream.
• Broader question raised: why so many “green materials” are announced once and never seen again—answers include poor economics, manual processes, and lack of industrial incentives.

Policy, Responsibility, and Behavior

• Strong disagreement over whether corporations or consumers bear primary responsibility for plastic waste.
• Multiple examples of bag bans (UK, others) show that simple policy can rapidly normalize reusables, though some argue impacts are marginal relative to upstream plastic use.
• Several insist that without regulation, lobbying and cheap fossil‑based plastics will keep alternatives like this on the margins.