It was cheaper in the sense of they imported from limes from the Carribean and lemons from India, which with no Suez canal is a pretty big difference. And at the same time they invented steam power, shortening voyages so the reduced effectiveness wasn't noticed until longer voyages due to newer military doctrines occurred again
PLA is biodegradable. Just only under industrial conposter conditions so yeah still a problem.
But a plastic is just a chain of polymers, it makes it difficult but not impossible to biodegradability depending on chemical and structure. Almost all plastics don't but some do
Acording to this paper/article, its better than technologies such as batteries, but the study isn't the most comprehensive and doesn't consider things like pump hydro.
It was cheaper in the sense of they imported from limes from the Carribean and lemons from India, which with no Suez canal is a pretty big difference. And at the same time they invented steam power, shortening voyages so the reduced effectiveness wasn't noticed until longer voyages due to newer military doctrines occurred again