this post was submitted on 23 May 2026
106 points (82.3% liked)
Memes
55830 readers
1070 users here now
Rules:
- Be civil and nice.
- Try not to excessively repost, as a rule of thumb, wait at least 2 months to do it if you have to.
founded 7 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Where did you get the idea that chewing gum is made out of rubber and plastic? ๐ค
Everything is made from rubber and plastic now. Bread? Plastic. Meat? Rubber. Vegetables? Plastic. Milk? Rubber. Chewing gum looks like rubber, but is actually plastic.
It is plastic, though. The exact formulas tend to be proprietary, but they use a plastic rather than a natural gum base unless explicitly stated otherwise on the packaging. Even a lot of the 'natural' brands still use a plastic base.
because it is: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gum_base
A podcast years ago. A cursory search confirms that modern chewing gum has a "gum base" that contains food safe plastic polymer. Old school ones are made from gum from trees, but that hasn't been economically viable for like a century.
Most of it will decompose but other parts either gets buried in a landfill or gets burned where the smoke goes into the sky and turns into stars.