Japan
Develops Plastic that Dissolves in Ocean
Written by SurfWriter Girls Sunny
Magdaug and Patti Kishel
There's a memorable line in the 1967 classic movie The Graduate when Dustin Hoffman's title character is given this career advice: "There's a great future in plastics."
Who would have
guessed that the line, meant to be funny, would be so relevant today? Plastics
have indeed changed the world, but they've also created tons of environmental
pollution with discarded products ending up in waterways and the ocean where
they remain indefinitely.
But there's a
new future for plastics now which offers its benefits without the damage to our
ecosystems. Scientists at Japan's Riken Center for Emergent
Matter Science and the University of Tokyo have created a new
form of plastic that dissolves completely in seawater.
The plastic is
made of ionic monomers (small chemically bonded molecules) linked by reversible
salt bonds that enable it to break down in the ocean in hours – Riken artist’s rendering
below – and in soil within ten days. What’s more, when the plastic decomposes
in soil it releases nutrients that can benefit plant life.
An entirely new
category of plastic, the manufacturing process mixes components in water to
create a viscous layer that contains high levels of salt ions. Strong and
versatile, the resulting material can be molded into a variety of plastic
products for numerous uses.
This
development, recently published in the U.S. journal Science,
couldn't come at a better time with plastics entering the ocean at alarming
rates, breaking up into microplastics that are virtually impossible to remove, and
being ingested by sea life.
SurfWriter Girls learned that some 430 million tons of plastics are produced globally each year. And less than 10% of them are recycled.
Takuzo Aida, the head of Riken’s plastics development team, has high hopes for the new plastic, which is made from ingredients commonly used in food additives. "We have created a new family of plastics that are strong, stable, recyclable and can serve multiple functions."
The next step
for this futuristic plastic is to develop methods to create it at a large
enough scale to meet manufacturers' needs. Then get them onboard using
it.
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