Plastic waste polluting the beach, mostly bottles that are pushed and attracted to the waves. — AFP
A team of Japanese researchers has successfully developed a new type of plastic that is strong, transparent and, above all, completely biodegradable, capable of dissolving in seawater in just a few hours.
This is a major breakthrough at a time when marine plastic pollution is a major issue.
This new plastic is actually made from ionic monomers commonly used in food processing, such as sodium hexametaphosphate and guanidinium sulfate.
These ionic monomers are small molecules with an electric charge that bind together to form polymers with specific properties such as salt sensitivity or conductivity.
The result is also non-toxic, non-flammable, and does not release CO2 when it decomposes.
In seawater, the salt bonds responsible for the material's cohesion quickly dissolve, causing complete disintegration within a few hours at most.
Unlike conventional plastics, this one does not generate any microplastics, and its components are largely recyclable.
In fact, after dissolving the new plastic in salt water, researchers were able to recover 91% of the hexametaphosphate and 82% of the guanidinium in powder form.
And that's not all: on land, the plastic degrades in less than 10 days, releasing essential nutrients such as phosphorus and nitrogen, thereby helping to enrich the soil like a fertiliser.
On paper, this solution is revolutionary, especially since it is as strong as petroleum-based plastics.
This means that one day this type of plastic could be used for packaging and also as a material for 3D printing without ending up polluting the oceans or land.
The arrival of such a plastic on the market could be one of the solutions to marine plastic pollution, given that millions of tonnes of it end up in the oceans every year.
This new material, which is potentially compostable and circular, could therefore represent an innovative solution to reduce this threat, all while offering similar performances to conventional plastics. – AFP Relaxnews
