Plastic pollution affects millions of people daily, contaminating oceans, impacting people's health, and destroying livelihoods. This is why researchers from Japan sought to find a solution to the growing problem.
Data from the United Nations Environment Programme shows an equivalent of 2,000 garbage trucks full of plastic is dumped into oceans, rivers, and lakes every day. Since conventional plastics do not break down over time, 19 to 23 million tons of plastic waste leak into water ecosystems yearly.
To address this problem, a team of researchers from the University of Tokyo and the research institute RIKEN developed a plastic material that can fully dissolve in water, offering a solution to marine pollution.
The environmentally friendly plastic can break down in the natural elements, such as soil and seawater, without leaving traces of microplastics, the BBC noted.
By mixing two types of natural biodegradable monomers in water, the team was able to form structures of combined monomers that when dried up, will produce a transparent yet dense plastic material.
Researchers also discovered that properties, such as heat resistance and hardness, can be adjusted by tweaking the monomers, the Japan Times explained.
"With this new material, we have created a new family of plastics that are strong, stable, recyclable, can serve multiple functions, and importantly, do not generate microplastics," explained study lead Takuzo Aida, per BBC.
The new dissolvable plastic will degrade in the environment in just 10 days and is cost-effective.
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