Ist mir auch schon passiert . <| sep |> I ' ll be frank , I don ' t have the time and desire to look for proper sources that will satisfy all of your scrutiny , but this topic is something I am currently studying . I ' m not an expert by any means , but I possess the general ideas . Simply put , look around you . Look at your home appliances , furniture , gadgets , materials your home is made of , literally everything around you . I am willing to bet at least 50 % of it all is made with some kind of plastic . Replacing all of that with an alternative is not an easy task . Especially when all the infrastructure for production of plastics is already there and widely used , alternatives will have to compete with their low cost and high yield . Given the current capitalist human nature , where we have oil giants pushing against renewables as hard as they can , I don ' t doubt the same happens in the petrochemical industry . The fight can ' t really be seen right now , as alternatives for plastics haven ' t received nearly as much development as renewable ecofriendly energy , but it will happen soon enough . There are alternatives , of course , but , personally , I don ' t think that they have any chance at competing in the next 10 years .