Biodegradable Plastic is Coming. Will it Save our Oceans?
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Channel: Science To Save The World
Categories: Society / Culture | Environmental | Science | Social Science
Categories: Society / Culture | Environmental | Science | Social Science
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An earlier episode of Science to Save the World examined the enormous problem of oceanic plastic pollution. Check that out to get a full-scope picture of the problem and some potential solutions.
Happily, biodegradable polymers may soon be able to help. Plastic pollution is literally everywhere, from supermarket bags in the deepest sea to microplastics in our food, and even in our blood. And traditional plastics don't degrade.
Scientists at the University of California, San Diego have created new biodegradable polymers that are intended to replace traditional plastics. The UCSD project brought together experts in biology, polymer and synthetic chemistry, and marine science to test and analyze polyurethane materials produced over the last eight years. After demonstrating compostable polyurethane foams, the team of scientists turned to creating high-performance plastics that can also disintegrate in the ocean. They recently published their results in Science of the Total Environment. And they're interesting!
Plastics in the ocean never completely degrade, but rather fragment into ever-smaller particles, eventually becoming microplastics that remain for decades. The UCSD researchers tested their biodegradable polyurethane materials in collaboration with a marine biologist and scientific diver from Scripps Institution of Oceanography.
The Ellen Browning Scripps Memorial Pier and Experimental Aquarium offered the scientists access and a one-of-a-kind opportunity to test materials in the natural nearshore ecology, where rogue plastics are most likely to wind up. The team discovered marine organisms that can live on this new polyurethane and degrade it to its original components, which they then consume. The organisms, a combination of bacteria and fungi, dwell throughout the natural marine environment.
"Plastics should not be going into the ocean in the first place, but if they do, this material becomes food for microorganisms and not plastic trash and microplastics that harm aquatic life" said Stephen Mayfield, a co-author on the study and a professor in the School of Biological Sciences and director of the California Center for Algae Biotechnology.
Flip-flops, the world's ubiquitous footwear, account for a sizable portion of the plastic trash dumped into landfills and oceans worldwide. Foam samples resembling them were subjected to tidal and wave dynamics, and chemical and physical changes were monitored with Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy.
The findings revealed that the material began to degrade in as little as four weeks. The researchers then found bacteria from six marine areas near San Diego capable of breaking down and digesting the polyurethane material.
"No single discipline can address these universal environmental problems but we've developed an integrated solution that works on landand now we know also biodegrades in the ocean," said Mayfield. "I was surprised to see just how many organisms colonize on these foams in the ocean. It becomes something like a microbial reef."
The Ocean Cleanup project, covered in an earlier episode, has posted a major milestone.
As of July 25th, 2022, The Ocean Cleanup, which aims to clean up 90% of floating plastic pollution, has now officially removed more than 100,000 kg of plastic from the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. The latest generation of their Interceptor technology will begin its journey along California's iconic coastline and beaches to its deployment location.
We have a long battle to clean up the ocean and reduce plastic consumption, but science is making progress!
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Science to Save the World is a project of LEAF / Lifespan.io, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.
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#Plastic #Water #Environment
Happily, biodegradable polymers may soon be able to help. Plastic pollution is literally everywhere, from supermarket bags in the deepest sea to microplastics in our food, and even in our blood. And traditional plastics don't degrade.
Scientists at the University of California, San Diego have created new biodegradable polymers that are intended to replace traditional plastics. The UCSD project brought together experts in biology, polymer and synthetic chemistry, and marine science to test and analyze polyurethane materials produced over the last eight years. After demonstrating compostable polyurethane foams, the team of scientists turned to creating high-performance plastics that can also disintegrate in the ocean. They recently published their results in Science of the Total Environment. And they're interesting!
Plastics in the ocean never completely degrade, but rather fragment into ever-smaller particles, eventually becoming microplastics that remain for decades. The UCSD researchers tested their biodegradable polyurethane materials in collaboration with a marine biologist and scientific diver from Scripps Institution of Oceanography.
The Ellen Browning Scripps Memorial Pier and Experimental Aquarium offered the scientists access and a one-of-a-kind opportunity to test materials in the natural nearshore ecology, where rogue plastics are most likely to wind up. The team discovered marine organisms that can live on this new polyurethane and degrade it to its original components, which they then consume. The organisms, a combination of bacteria and fungi, dwell throughout the natural marine environment.
"Plastics should not be going into the ocean in the first place, but if they do, this material becomes food for microorganisms and not plastic trash and microplastics that harm aquatic life" said Stephen Mayfield, a co-author on the study and a professor in the School of Biological Sciences and director of the California Center for Algae Biotechnology.
Flip-flops, the world's ubiquitous footwear, account for a sizable portion of the plastic trash dumped into landfills and oceans worldwide. Foam samples resembling them were subjected to tidal and wave dynamics, and chemical and physical changes were monitored with Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy.
The findings revealed that the material began to degrade in as little as four weeks. The researchers then found bacteria from six marine areas near San Diego capable of breaking down and digesting the polyurethane material.
"No single discipline can address these universal environmental problems but we've developed an integrated solution that works on landand now we know also biodegrades in the ocean," said Mayfield. "I was surprised to see just how many organisms colonize on these foams in the ocean. It becomes something like a microbial reef."
The Ocean Cleanup project, covered in an earlier episode, has posted a major milestone.
As of July 25th, 2022, The Ocean Cleanup, which aims to clean up 90% of floating plastic pollution, has now officially removed more than 100,000 kg of plastic from the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. The latest generation of their Interceptor technology will begin its journey along California's iconic coastline and beaches to its deployment location.
We have a long battle to clean up the ocean and reduce plastic consumption, but science is making progress!
FOLLOW US
https://www.facebook.com/ScienceToSaveTheWorld/
https://www.instagram.com/sciencetosavetheworld/
https://www.lifespan.io/science-to-save-the-world/
HOW CAN YOU SUPPORT US?
Science to Save the World is a project of LEAF / Lifespan.io, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.
Support us with monthly donations by becoming a Lifespan Hero: https://www.lifespan.io/hero
Subscribe: http://www.youtube.com/user/LifespanIO
Learn more, and help us: https://www.lifespan.io
#Plastic #Water #Environment
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