6 Comments

Hey Matt&Chris. Thanks for bringing this topic to our attention and keeping us updated! I am really looking forward to see the movie and the response of the industry. Your first episode on Type Two inspired me to write my thesis about chloroprene production. It is still very strange to see the number of eco-friendly claims about limestone without any quantitative proof, or at best, rather bold assumptions.

A common argument for limestone's environmental benefits is that one specific limestone rubber production site sources 40% of its electricity from hydropower. However, because of the substantial electricity demand, my research showed that this does not significantly reduce limestone's environmental footprint enough to make it a cleaner alternative to it's synthetic brother made from butadiene, let alone natural rubber.

If you're interested in checking the results, you can find my research over here:

https://repository.tudelft.nl/record/uuid:c5a29965-cc60-4cf0-8b2f-bd0651e0d1e5

Keep it up!

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Thanks Rick for delving into this opaque world and bringing a bit of clarity. Too many 'Limestone Neoprene' brands are still pushing their completely unsubstantiated sustainability claims.

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Super interesting Rick, and so stoked to hear that first chat inspired you to look further into it

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Thanks for making this free to read Matt. I backed the fundraiser, so pleased to hear it's turned out well. I will subscribe soon!!

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Ha right on Martin, thanks for the good vibes.

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Always a pleasure to read.

I love the concept of `purpose gap`. Something I get told so much. the classic "Haha you care about environment but you wrote this on your iPhone" or "Tell me more about nature while you just took a plane".

We get it, it is hard to be perfect. But like this documentary shows (I haven't seen it yet, but read so much about it that I feel like I know the line), there is a simple solution here that is amazing.

The issue is the same than for social networks and so on. We know it is bad but ... Thousands of people fighting for capitalism have the money to convince you it isn't that bad. And the problem lie just there. They have the marketing power to convince a lot of folks. Maybe because of the stock, maybe just because they are pigs... Don't care about the reason. They are just here for the dollars and making a company richer. The rest is not important for them.

I am just happy that we, as consumers, have the power to vote them out with the way we spend our money. We can trick them out of neoprene... and we damn will!

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