This was posted a day or so ago but the answer to this is that government officials should stay out of science. They don’t know what they are talking about.
The polymer in pods is partially hydrolyzed polyvinyl alcohol.
It is soluble in water and is degraded by microorganisms.
It doesn’t contribute to microplastic pollution.
The pods are much lighter and easier to transport than liquid detergents. Plus they don’t come in bottles that do contribute to microplastic pollution.
Lawyers shouldn’t be making the rules for packaging engineers if they don’t know what they’re doing.
It’s not about the science or engineering, it’s about establishing a new black market profit center for the cartels to exploit.
Good answer!
Pods help prevent pollution in our household because the rule is one pod per load. That way we don’t free-hand pour a pint or so of liquid soap in per load.
Isn’t polyvinyl alcohol the same stuff used in white glue (aka Elmer’s School Glue)?
I once had old bottle of it that had some sort of mold or fungus growing in it. It smelled moldy.
Some sort of organism found it delicious and nutritious.
The annoying part of it was that I was about 12 years old, needed school glue for something (don’t recall what), and this moldy mess was all that was in the house.