this post was submitted on 23 May 2026
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Where did you get the idea that chewing gum is made out of rubber and plastic? ๐ค
Edit: Thanks all, I had no idea!
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.
because it is: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gum_base
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.
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.