asterisk2a

Shouldn't this be an easy pitch to sell?

tl;dr You can not compete with free.

As long as plastic from oil (out of the ground, stolen from the earth) is as cheap as it is, nothing else (more expensive) will compete (rational market forces, rational market actors).

What your employer is doing is a voluntary public action. If your employer would have to compete on price (because his only differentiation to his competitors is the price and nothing else), he would switch back to cheaper plastic utensils and plates. Otherwise, he would lose customers, because the rational market actor picks the cheapest if everything else is the same.

Q: Where was your starting point, if you had one? Did you start from scratch? Did you start with a call for papers? And what collaboration/influence surprised you the most that moved the project most ahead. (if you can disclose)[1]

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[1] I can imagine theoretical technology developed/on paper during the cold war for the national missile defence system to intercept nukes from orbit could have been used as starting point. Although on second thought, space is a different beast than orbital mechanics (math) and supersonic physics problems.

Can you be more medical, what type of tumors you've had?

Why does the voter not protest when special interests and vested interests trump rationality?

"Public action" without minimum pricing?

Do you and the Biden administration only believe in public action (voluntary) to address plastic pollution & waste? Or also think you have to introduce policies that nudge people and companies towards better behaviour and everyday decision making?

Example: Just like you really need a CO2 price (according to experts), you also need minimum pricing on virgin materials as a price floor to give the recycling industry an environment that they can actually operate in without losing money.

Because recycling (which costs money) can not work, when new plastic out of oil is cheaper than recycled plastic (basic economic market forces, you can not compete with free (stolen from the earth)).