This may sound like science fiction, but could it really be possible? Plastics are made mainly from long strings of carbon atoms joined together with hydrogen atoms attached all the way down them. They are called hydrocarbon molecules because of those hydrogen and carbon atoms joined together. It has been very convenient that these molecules can be easily made from fossil fuels. If we can get hydrogen from water (see hydrogen) then we need a source of carbon. This could be from plants (see bioplastics). But what if we took it from the carbon dioxide from the air (see carbon capture)? Then we could make plastics and at the same time reduce the amount of global warming gas in the atmosphere. We wouldn’t need to grow crops for plastics and that is good because it wouldn’t compete with food and there would be less risk to forests. More work needs to be done by scientists and engineers on this to make it cheap and available. By doing so they will turn science fiction into science fact!
Living Laudato Si' 