Fake Plants Made From Plants

And what it means for plastic

I like fake plants. Mostly, I like them because I’m bad at maintaining regular plants. It seems that feeding young kids in my care takes priority over things in planters.

However, I really enjoy seeing the greenery and complexity of plants. It’s something about having plants in my peripheral vision that makes me much calmer than a monkey in a concrete box.

However, fake plants are typically made from plastic. That’s bad. While looking at them in my peripheral vision does the trick, I’m reminded of their effect on other plants when I look at them directly.

One company, Vistolia, has started experimenting on fake plants made from bioplastic. Hence, fake plants from plants.

After listening to the audiobook of John Doerr’s Speed and Scale, listening to interviews with Tony Fadell, and thinking about the plastic problem, I’ve started to think that changing consumer behavior towards plastics is a difficult uphill battle. It’s everywhere and it’s very convenient.

The change isn’t likely to happen on the demand side but on the supply side. The trend towards banning plastic bags is a step and putting taxes on single use plates and cutlery might do something to stir up innovation, but there needs to be a wholesale change in the supply chain.

Just like what happened to solar panels in the early 2,000s, it’s possible that investments in non-petrochemical plastic technologies could fuel a reduction in costs to make them equivalent or even less expensive to the regular kind. On the flip side, new technologies that can process plastic appropriately for reuse without requiring more energy are needed to handle this issue. Those who find the solution are sitting on a goldmine.