Scientists Develop Truly Biodegradable Plastics

Key Points:

  • “A research team at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and the University of California (UC), Berkeley has found a way to make biodegradable plastics actually disappear.”
  • “The researchers found that as much as 98 percent of their modified plastics converted into small molecules, leaving no microplastics behind. At room temperature, the plastics degraded by 80 percent after about a week. In the high heat of industrial composting conditions, plastics degraded even faster. They also disappeared after a few days in warm tap water.”
  • “Xu also thinks the process could apply to different types of polyester plastic and various recycling problems, such as developing compostable glue for electronics.”
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It’s never too late! I hope this will quickly become mainstream and it’s truly biodegradable.

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