Listen to learn more about a new composite plastic which decomposes easily with the help of bacteria and may have potential as a solution to our intricate worldwide issue of plastic waste end product on this planet.
The Plastic Pandemic
Plastic garbage has grown into a global disaster— billions of tons pervade the land, oceans and much in between. Plastic ingredients can break down n microplastics, contaminating the air and water, if not the very blood of people and beasts. The challenge now is that the threat from plastics — those armadas of giant polymer molecules that are notoriously slow to biodegrade — looms ever larger.
Yet biodegradable plastics represent under 20 percent of the total plastic output today, and existing technologies for degrading them are often unwieldy and inefficient. This alarming state of affairs has driven researchers to develop cutting-edge, sustainable solutions that both have a greenhouse potential as lowering impact on environment due to plastic polluting and can also keep pace with industrial needs.
A Groundbreaking Discovery
Now, a group of scientists at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel could end this dilemma. Pictured is a new composite plastic developed by Haim Weissman, Dr. Angelica Niazov-Elkan and Prof. Boris Rybtchinski that breaks down quickly with the aid of bacteria, in ACS Nano
The research team explains that the material is made by mixing a biodegradable polymer with nanocrystals produced from the amino acid tyrosine. That composite plastic has three huge advantages: it’s cheap, simple to create and super-strong.
Its beauty and success are a result in part of the unique properties that form when combining two components synergistically. In most cases, when one increases strength, they decrease ductility. However, this new composite plastic not only has superior strength but is also more ductile or machinable than its base material hydroxyethyl cellulose.
Conclusion
The production of such eco-friendly plastic and composite is a milestone in the battle against plastic waste. The creation of a material that is both stronger and biodegradable opens the door to more sustainable manufacturing in the future. The promise of a completely new kind of − and fully recyclable – plastic has never been far from reality, and with each step that the team takes to finalize the production method, so does its potential become more real for industries on a worldwide scale – providing a glimmer of hope in saving our environment from what no longer needs to be an ever-increasing footprint.
