Is silicone better than plastic?

So, if you were by any chance wondering this, I will let you know what I’ve learn until now so you can make your own conclusion. Let’s go strait to the juicy part.

First of all: the composition. Although plastic and silicone may look alike in many ways, their chemical composition is completely different. Plastic is a petroleum-based product (you know, petroleum..  basically known as “everything what’s wrong with the world” right now, so not much to explain there). Silicone instead, is derivative from silicon, which is a natural element that you can find in sand for example, or in quartz.

Then: safety: The most important difference I’ve found is that silicone is chemically inert and plastic isn’t. Inert means that it is stable, inactive, that it doesn’t exchange components with it’s environment. Plastic, for example, can release chemicals into your food and drinks if you warm it up in the microwave; and it can also release chemicals in the oceans that would increase contamination. Silicone, on the other hand won’t. Whether you put it in the microwave, the oven or in the water. Silicone is safe.

To finish we must say that neither of them are biodegradable or easy to recycle but at least, if lost in the environment, silicon won’t release chemicals and won’t turn into micro pieces like plastic does.

So, in my opinion, silicon is not a perfect solution, but it is a great intermediate step.

What do you think?