Scientists at the Riken research institute in Japan have developed a plastic that would retain its strength yet completely break down in environments such as soil and sea water, without leaving any microplastics behind.
The importance of plastic in today’s world cannot be denied, it’s in food packaging, or the water bottle you find in your lunchtime meal deal, whether we like it or not, plastic is a staple in our every day lives.
It cannot be overstated the damage that it causes to nature and the environment.
The biggest challenge is plastic’s inability to break down like paper or food and can linger for hundreds of years.
When these larger pieces of plastics break down they turn into microplastics that wildlife can unknowingly consume.
Bright news surfacing from researchers in Japan may have helped to halt the world’s plastic problem as they have developed a type of the material that will fully dissolve in the ocean.
Tests showed that the new plastic would start to break down within hours when placed in salt water.
Furthermore, when put into soil, the sheets of the new plastic degraded in 10 days and supplied a chemical similar to fertiliser, which helps keep soil healthy.
The lead research behind the study, Takuzo Aida, said: “With this new material, we have created a new family of plastics that are strong, stable, recyclable, can serve multiple functions, and importantly, do not generate microplastics.”