Biodegradable......

I have been hearing this argument: "Plastics are not good for the environment....because they are not biodegradable"...Last month I was in Bhilai and met a few bright school children who have formed an Green Club....again they gave me a lecture why plastics are not good for the environment....they are not biodegradable. ...but they were wearing a uniform made of "Polyester" and cotton blend... I asked them if steel is biodegradable ? Is cement biodegradable ? Is porcelein or glass biodegradable ?...are they bad for the environment ? Are stinking dead bodies or rotting vegetables that add the BOD to water and making it unusable good for the environment ? Is "Biodegradable" the only criterion for deciding which material to be used for a specific purpose? Are we not misleading the children ?....Just because we don't know as to how to handle a waste/ used polythene bag (with < 25 micron thickness) and our (mis)handling of this waste results in choking of drains (including the alimentary canal of cows), do we teach our children that Plastics as a whole is bad for the environment....I cannot imagine a world without plastics (polymers)...the dress you wear, the paint you use, the brush with which you clean your teath, the comb you use for combing your hair, the shampoo bottle, the soap box, the water bucket and the mug, the washer you use in your tap, the TV you watch, the IPOD you enjoy, your washing machines, your refrigerators, your cooker handles, knobs of your LPG stove, and the insulator of the electrical conductors...and so on are made of plastics....can you avoid them and enjoy your life???? Children should be made to think....do they come to conclusions based on life-cycle thinking ? If they do so, the "bio-degrable" argument will die....dead bodies are still burried under ice in the arctic...not degraded for centuries!!!!!