Wako (TDI): A team of researchers from the RIKEN Center for Emergent Matter Science and the University of Tokyo have made plastic that completely dissolves into sea-water in a few hours, leaving no residue or microplastics.
In a lab demonstration, a small piece of this plastic dissolved into salt water within an hour, showing great promise for environmentally-friendly plastics which will not destroy oceans and aquatic life.
Innovation in biodegradable plastics is keeping many passionate scientists and researchers busy as they set out to replace the damaging footprint of traditional plastics.
Project lead, Takuzo Aida, told Reuters, “Children cannot choose the planet they will live on. It is our duty as scientists to ensure that we leave them with best possible environment.”
Disposing off plastics is literally haunting the planet as these materials do not fully degenerate and as world’s dependence on plastic materials is unchanging.
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These Japanese researchers see a lot of scope for their new innovation. They told Reuters that packaging companies have reached out to them. However, they have not yet though about commercializing this new form of plastic.
It is noteworthy that this plastic is as strong as the traditional plastics but it only fully dissolves in salt water. On land, it can take longer to degrade as salt content in soil is far less.
“A piece about five centimeters (two inches) in size disintegrates on land after over 200 hours,” Aida told Reuters.
The next task ahead for this team of researchers is to find the best coating for this non-toxic, non-flammable plastic. Interestingly, this new material does not omit any carbon dioxide.
According to the United Nations Environment Program, plastic pollution will triple by 2040, adding 23-37 million metric tons of waste into the world’s oceans each year.
Nuzhat Rana is the Managing Editor (website) at The Diplomatic Insight.
