What is Silicone and is it Better than Plastic?
There’s no question that we need to use less plastic, especially in single-use plastics. But it can be hard to decide exactly what to replace it with. One increasingly common answer to this is silicone.
Silicone is one of those mysterious synthetic substances that you can find everywhere, but it’s not always clear how it’s made or where it comes from. And that makes it hard to know if it’s actually a sustainable material at all.
While there’s no easy answer to whether silicone is the right choice, the only way to make that choice is by being informed about what you’re actually buying.
What is Silicone?
Silicone is a man-made material that comes in a lot of different forms such as oils and resins. But the kind of silicone you’re most likely to come across in everyday life is silicone rubber.
Silicone rubber is pretty common in household goods, especially as an alternative to plastic. It’s durable, heat resistant, and doesn’t leach toxic chemicals into foods, so it’s especially common in cookware.
Ultimately, silicone isn’t anything all that special. It’s a material that’s a lot like plastic, but tends to last longer and isn’t as toxic as the environment. However, it’ll still last for hundreds of years in a landfill, and so is far from the perfect sustainable material.
What is Silicone Made of?
Image Credit: habrovich via Envato Elements
Silicone is basically made by mixing sand with natural gas. So, like plastic, part of it comes from fossil fuels, but unlike plastic, it’s also made from some more natural parts too.
One of the basic parts of silicone is the element silicon (if you can’t tell, that’s where silicone gets its name). But while they might have similar names, they’re two very different things.
Silicon is a naturally occurring element which is mostly found in rocks. In its pure form, it’s a shiny, silvery metal, but the vast majority of the Earth’s silicon is locked away in rocks, bonded with other elements.
The silicon in silicone comes from a chemical compound called silica, which you might recognize from the silica gel packets found in some packaged foods. But you’re probably more familiar with it in another form: sand!
While sand can be made up of many different things, one of its most common components is quartz, which is just silica in mineral form. And it’s this quartz sand that’s used to make silicone.
First, the silica is heated as high as 1800°C (3272°C), which separates it into pure silicon and oxygen. The pure silicon is mixed with methyl chloride, a gas that’s usually made from natural gas. The product of this is distilled, then mixed with water, and then you’ve got silicone!
Silicone Versus Plastic
At the end of the day, silicone and plastic aren’t all that different. And that’s not unexpected when you think about how they’re made. Both of them are made with fossil fuels, so it makes sense they’re similar.
One problem with plastic is that it often contains toxic chemicals which can get into your food if you’re cooking with it, and will get into the environment if you throw it out. Silicone isn’t nearly as toxic as plastic, so it’s very safe to use with food, and is even safe enough to use in some implants. And, when it breaks down or is burned, it’s still not as much of a problem as plastic is.
The other big benefit of silicone is its durability. Products made with silicone will last longer than plastic, so by buying silicone, you’re making less waste in the long run.
Beyond this, neither silicone nor plastic are biodegradable, and silicone is even a bit harder to recycle, so it’s far from perfect. However, silicone is undeniably better than single-use plastics, and is usually a better choice than plastic in general.
Is Silicone Biodegradable?
While silicone isn’t quite as toxic as plastic, it’s still a synthetic material made from fossil fuels, and that means it doesn’t biodegrade. So if you’re looking for something you can feel ok throwing out after only a couple uses, silicone isn’t a good choice.
It is worth mentioning that because silicone is a more stable material than plastic, and because it’s partially made with silicon, a naturally occurring material, it’s not quite as bad for the environment as plastic when it ends up in a landfill. It won’t break down into dangerous microplastics, and it also doesn’t leach nearly as many toxins into the environment.
That’s still not a good reason to just throw out your silicone though. So if you’re not going to be using it and reusing it for a long time, silicone is not a good choice of material.
Is Silicone Recyclable?
Image Credit: ratmaner via Envato Elements
While silicone is technically recyclable, most of the time, it’s not as simple as just throwing it in a bag with the rest of your recyclables and leaving it on the curb. Most recycling centres aren’t equipped to recycle silicone.
As similar as plastic and silicone are, they’re recycled in completely different ways. Recycling plastic is pretty simple. All you have to do is melt it down, pour it into a mould, and you’re done.
But here’s the thing: silicone doesn’t melt! That’s great for when you need heat resistant cooking ware, but makes recycling it hard. No matter how much you heat it up, all silicone will do is slowly break down and become entirely unusable.
What that means is that there’s no easy way to recycle silicone waste. Usually, it has to be ground up into tiny pieces and mixed with new silicone, or chemically broken down into an oil that can be used as an industrial lubricant. Both of those are specialized processes most recycling centres just aren’t designed for.
So if you’re getting rid of some silicone, make sure to check if your local recycling centre will accept it before throwing it in your recycling bin. And if it doesn’t, your only option may be sending it to a service like TerraCycle. Otherwise, you might be out of luck.
Pros and Cons of Silicone
Pros
- It’s durable, so you’ll get more uses out of it than something made from plastic.
- It’s heat resistant and won’t lose its shape or flexibility no matter how many times you put it in the oven.
- It doesn’t leach toxic chemicals into food or water, even at high temperatures, making it always safe to use with food.
- It’s cheaper than some other plastic alternatives.
Cons
- It isn’t biodegradable. Although it’s not quite as bad for the environment as plastic, it’s still waste that’s never going to go away.
- It can be hard to recycle, so you might struggle to figure out how to get rid of silicone once you’re done with it.
- It’s manufacturing process usually uses fossil fuels and a lot of energy, which can give it a fairly high environmental impact.
Final Thoughts on Silicone
Silicone isn’t the perfect solution when looking for a sustainable material, but it’s not without its place. It’s not biodegradable and can be hard to recycle, but it’s durable and non-toxic, which makes it a decent choice for a reusable item. The best use of silicone is to replace single use plastics with a long lasting, reusable product, or as an alternative to plastic cookware.
However, if you have the option, its usually better to go with a more sustainable material. Glass, stainless steel, or even natural rubber are all alternatives depending on what you’re using it for, and are better for the environment in the long run. But when combined with other sustainable practices and materials, silicone can still help you make your life more eco-friendly.
No Comments