By Jamila Talishli, Year 12
Research conducted at the RIKEN Center for Emergent Matter Science has created a new plastic that might be a key component in solving the current environmental issue of plastic pollution in our oceans. Leading the project is Takuzo Aida and has come up with a strong plastic that shares the ability to recycle with good biodegradability in seawater. This scientific breakthrough could reduce the huge amounts of poisonous microplastic pollution that is presently acting as a curse to marine life and rather finds its way into the food chain.
Plastic waste, especially the smallest pieces known as microplastics, accounts for some of the major environmental concerns on the planet today. Microplastics are small particles measuring less than 5 mm and take hundreds of years to decompose. They find their way into our oceans, rivers, and soils, damaging wildlife and possibly interfering with the food we eat. In a bid to address this concern, though biodegradable plastics like PLA have been developed, most of them do not degrade in seawater, and form microplastics. This is because most biodegradable plastics available today do not dissolve when they come into contact with water.
To tackle all these issues, researchers turned their attention to a new genre of plastics known as “supramolecular plastics”. These are polymers linked together via reversible bonds that provide sturdy yet light structures when manufactured. The two specific molecules that make it work are molecules that make up the building blocks of polymers, and a very common food additive to create something with great strength and flexibility, just like conventional plastics.
What differentiates this novel plastic is that its compounds can break away with exposure to seawater electrolytes like salt. This means it will safely degrade and vanish rather than sticking around in the ocean for years. This is truly a breakthrough moment, helping reduce microplastic pollution in oceans that damages marine life and works its way up the food chain. The new plastic is not just a degradable plastic, but completely safe for use too. It is non-toxic, and it does not burn, meaning that harmful gases will not be emitted when used, and it will not add carbon to the environment. Like other thermoplastics, the plastic may be heated repeatedly and reshaped. This has led to its potential use in various fields, such as 3-D printing, packaging, and even in the medical industry!
Also, the tests performed on the new plastic to determine its recyclability and biodegradability showed that while the new biodegradable plastics may dissolve in saltwater, more than 90 percent of key ingredients are able to be recovered and thus recycled and reused. This could mean a very important step in reducing plastics going into landfills or the ocean. Also, the plastic fully degraded within 10 days once it plunged into soil, releasing good nutrients, such as phosphorus and nitrogen, essentially acting as a natural fertilizer.
As principal researcher Takuzo Aida said, “This new material, compared to our previous ones, is a completely new family of plastics, one that is strong, stable, recyclable, and most importantly it does not generate microplastics.” This might be a new breakthrough that heralds a superior future for our planet-clean, sustainable.
This could be the breakthrough plastic that will change the world’s perception of this material. This new plastic has comparable strength and applicability to regular plastics, but, most importantly, it’s degradable in oceans while being recyclable. It can be applied across all walks of products-from utensils to packaging and medical devices, through to manufacturing industries-without further contributing to the growing strain of the plastic pollution crisis.
