When doing a quick search on Google, you might find some websites and blogs recommending silicone as a safe alternative to plastics. The silicone food bag made its entrance into the market a few years ago under the pretence that it is ocean-friendly. How so? Semantically, it would seem to make sense because the word “silicone” is not the word “plastic.” But everything about silicone reminds us of plastic, so we say if it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then it probably is a duck. The fact is, silicone is plastic.
Let’s look at it closely. Silicone is not a natural product made entirely of sand, as the urban legends would have us believe. Silicone is synthetic. It is a hybrid between between synthetic rubbers and synthetic plastic polymers and it includes a mix of chemical additives. It is flexible, malleable, and moisture resistant just like plastics. It can be shaped and formed into practically anything.
Is silicone safe?
Research shows that it is very stable, but not completely. At least one study has shown the release of siloxanes from silicone nipples and bakeware after 72 hours of contact. Siloxanes are considered potential endocrine disrupters, and some have been linked to cancers.
Is silicone recyclable?
Not really. There might be very specialized facilities that can turn it into oil, but it is rarely accepted in municipal curbside recycling programs. So from this perspective, silicone is actually worse than some types of carbon-based plastics such as polyethylene terephthalate (#1) or polypropylene (#5), which have among the best recycling rates. Moreover, silicone is so durable, that it may take hundreds of years for it to degrade, maybe even longer than plastic.
So before accepting statements that silicone is actually a great alternative to plastics, think about how similar silicone is to plastics. Just the name is different. And here’s the kicker: the plastics industry considers silicone a plastic. If the industry making the stuff considers it a plastic, why shouldn’t we?
Chantal Plamondon