Is silicone different or better than plastic?

Is silicone different or better than plastic? There are a lot of sustainable alternatives to single-use plastics and they're all made of silicone. And silicone is really marketed to us as this sustainable alternative. But how is it different than plastic and is it really that much better? So silicone is made out of silica, which is naturally found in sand. However, in order to make the silica into silicone, there's a chemical process that combines oxygen, silica, and carbon to actually make the silicone product that we see at the end. Silicone is far more temperature and chemical resistant than your standard plastic is. But, not all silicone is created equal. You want to make sure that it is labeled as food safe or 100% platinum. Those are the highest standards that you want to be looking for, especially if you want it to touch your food. The lower grade knock-off versions can still leach chemicals and toxins into our bodies. Silicone doesn't contain the toxic chemicals like BPA or phthalates or PVC, and they're not breaking down into microplastics that end up in our bodies. So is it even safer than plastic? Overall, silicone is much better. But when people say it's made from a natural product like sand, that's just the first ingredient before it goes through a chemical process. I love the silicone alternatives to plastic, but I never understood why they were really better.