The lacing isn't plastic, it's (as the article mentions) typically waxed linen or some other type of fiber/rope. Zip ties have to be made of a more solid material like plastic, since you need to mold in all those tiny teeth that cause the zip tie to ratchet closed. It's neat that a lot of these plastics are apparently tasty for rodents and other pests to eat though; I wonder if you could add a bitterant to combat this. But zipties will still have other issues caused by the plastic material: brittleness from UV exposure, and cracks due to freeze/thaw cycles and thermal expansion. There's other (non-plastic) alternatives to cable ties though, for example metal hose clamps. Although that might be too harsh on the cables, not to mention being conductive. It seems lacing is by far the gentlest option on the cables, and longer lasting than zip ties, at the cost of requiring more time to set up correctly.