The Problem Petroleum-based plastics are created using a man-made polymer called polyethylene terephthalate (or PET). Unlike other biodegradable materials such as food, or even newspapers, PET does not break down when exposed to the elements. In the six decades that the PET polymer has been available for mass production, around 8.3 billion metric tons of plastic have been created and subsequently disposed of, mostly via landfills. The Solution Instead of PET, bioplastics, a type of plastic derived from biological substances rather than from petroleum, use a polymer called polylactic acid, or …