Same reason why plastic bullets aren’t used: the Geneva convention prohibit them, as they cannot be discovered by medical X-ray, making them more threatening than metal. Better have all avoid them, than have to handpick plastic from your men and women. read more
And to the point: I understand that nowhere else in the world will you find so many land mines in active use. read more
Photo: Timo Luege/Flickr According to Protocol I of the 1979 Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons, weapons that use non-metallic fragments not detectable by X-Ray are prohibited in war. The rationale is pretty obvious, since field surgeons can't remove fragments they can't locate within an injured body. read more