Comment by oblio

We already have this in the physical world.

Plastic/synthetics are the slop of the physical world. They're a side product of extracting oil and gas so they're extremely cheap.

Yet if you look at synthetics by volume, probably 99% of them are used just because they're cheaper than the natural alternative. Yes, some have characteristics that are novel, but by and large everything we do with plastics is ultimately based on "they're cheaper".

Plastics, unfortunately, aren't going away.