Tuesday, October 02, 2018

Biodegradable Nuatan could help wean us off our plastic addiction

At last, a viable, fully biodegradable alternative to plastic may be on the horizon (and God knows we need one).
Nuatan is an all-natural bio-plastic made from corn starch, sugar and cooking oil. It is completely biodegradable, and even edible
(by both humans and fish), and was developed by material scientists at the Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava. The material can last up to 15 years and withstand temperatures of over 100°C. It is suitable for 3D printing, injection molding and several other plastic manufacturing techniques. It requires less energy and resource consumption than traditional oil-based plastics, and could help improve both environmental sustainability and climate change.
Although it may not be suitable for some heavy duty situations like vehicle manufacture, it could realistically replace all plastic packaging and single-use plastic products like bags, straws, water bottles, plates, cutlery, etc. Currently, it suffers from a relatively high cost of production, like any new product, but widespread adoption and mass production would quickly bring costs down.
So, hey, here's a radical idea: let's divert some of the billions of dollars currently being used to subsidize and prop up the oil and coal industries and invest them in something like Nuatan, something that could actually improve the world.

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