system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
Are hemp plastics structurally distinct from petroleum-based plastics?

A friend the other day tried to tell me that hemp-based plastics are superior because they're biodegradable, but I don't know that I believe that. After all, it is still plastic... right?
gpt
"Plastic" is a term that describes a material that uses polymers as the main component. This covers an absolutely huge range of chemical structures, giving plastics a wide variety of properties. Hemp-based plastics, AFAIK, are cellulose-based, so they are absolutely biodegradable. Petroleum-based polymers include things like polyethylene and polystyrene, which are very inert and not biodegradable. 

From a chemistry perspective, they are completely structurally distinct materials.