Seaweed To Biodegradable Plastic
How We Can Save Our Seas
Source: Kevin Krejci
“Plastic Ocean” by Kevin Krejci is licensed under CC BY 2.0
There are billions of pounds of plastic laying around in the ocean and the amount continues to grow.
Some startups have came up with a solution.
Biodegradable plastic, plastic that will dissolve in the ocean instead of haunting it. But how can you make these magical plastics? Start-ups including Notpla and Sway The Future believe they have came up with a solution, seaweed.
Seaweed grows very quickly in saltwater so it isn’t a rare material, making it perfect for mass production and the process for turning it into actually plastic is continuing to be more and more refined. While being biodegradable in both water and land the seaweed, believe it or not is also edible. Imagine being able to eat your own food packaging after using it. And even if you don’t want to it will naturally degrade anyway. Seaweed is also known to take large amounts of carbon out of the atmosphere helping the environment and doesn’t even need pesticides.
The science behind this seaweed based biodegradable plastic is actually not too
complicated. Sway makes their with a white powder which you can make by washing and drying seaweed in processing centers. Then this power arrives into a lab. The powder in then mixed with water before it is heated up. After it is sufficiently heated sugars and starches from plants such as coconut and wheat are added, sometimes along with dye. After this then all you need to do is cast the material into a thin film and let it cool, giving you plastic.
Of course this new method of making plastic is not perfect and it will take some time for it to be used in all plastic products. For now it is primarily used in just small packages containing liquids such has alcohol and in food packaging products for clothes and food but progress has been made. The industry has received government grants to continue their research showing that many have faith in the program.
RELATED STORIES:
https://www.cnn.com/style/article/notpla-seaweed-single-use-plastics/index.html
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/earthshot-prize-winner-solving-plastic-poillution-with-seaweed/
TAKE ACTION:
https://www.plasticsoupfoundation.org/en/donate-and-make-a-difference/
