IBM develops new cheaper biodegradable plastics
Researchers from US multinational technology and consulting corporation International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) have announced that they found a way to create cheaper and biodegradable plastics
Researchers from US multinational technology and consulting corporation International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) have announced that they found a way to create cheaper and biodegradable plastics.
Plastics would be made of plants like palm trees and beets, and they can be used for different products such as eating utensils or even medical devices.
Biodegradable cutlery already exists but it still costs more than petroleum-based alternatives.
The new plastics were developed by Standford University scientists at IBN Research’s Almaden lab in San Jose, California.
IBM Research computational chemist Gavin O. Jones said: “What’s exciting about this discovery is that we now have a cheaper way to convert plants into common consumer plastics that decompose over time, providing an alternative to recycling plastics... Making biodegradable plastics mainstream means less impact on our solid waste systems.”
While the current method to convert plants into biodegradable plastics involves heavy metals that are difficult to remove and do not decompose over time, the new catalyst is an organic substance which permits to lower the energy required for the conversion from plant to plastic, and it does not contain heavy metals.
The technological advance will lead to less plastic waste and cheaper recycled materials manufacturers can use in order to produce a large variety of products, according to IBM.