However, we were shocked to discover that many people do not know that chewing gum is made from plastic or petroleum.
This is because it actually started well: the first chewing gums that conquered the world from the USA after the Second World War were not made of plastic, but also came from the "chicle" tree, which belongs to the gum tree family.
But then it went thoroughly wrong: Then, in the 70s and 80s, natural chewing gum was replaced by synthetic petroleum-based plastic chewing gum. First because there was a lack of raw materials and later because the manufacturers realised that it was cheaper.
What is particularly worrying is that plastic cannot be biodegraded. Plastic remains forever. Even worse, mechanical forces cause it to decompose into microplastics after a few years.
