A recent study demonstrated a new way to make an existing bio-based plastic alternative even safer for the environment, and it's as simple as adding air.
Cellulose diacetate (CDA) is a bio-based polymer used in "cigarette filters, textiles, coatings, films, food packaging, and other products," per Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. It's made from wood pulp, and unlike most traditional plastics, it biodegrades easily in soil or wastewater. It even dissolves in seawater in months, not decades as originally assumed — and not the hundreds of years that other plastics take.
Now, thanks to a study published in ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering, CDA can be turned into an even more eco-friendly material that breaks down even faster.
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Researchers turned the CDA into foam, meaning it now had millions of tiny pores instead of a smooth, flat structure. They then ran the material under seawater for 36 weeks to determine how quickly it broke down. For comparison, they did the same with solid CDA and polystyrene (plastic) foam.
After 36 weeks, the CDA foam had lost 65%-70% of its mass, the study reported. It broke down 15 times faster than solid CDA — and meanwhile, the polystyrene had lost no mass at all. "The degradation rates of the CDA foams were … the fastest of any plastic reported in the ocean," the authors said. They even showed that the increase in biodegradation "from foaming is predictable."
That's a big deal because, right now, the ocean is full of plastic trash. From food wrappers and discarded fishing gear, to small pellets of raw plastic, to tiny microplastics, it all adds up to a serious amount of pollution.
Plastic is dangerous to sea life, but that's not all. It's also a health risk for humans. We are exposed to microplastics in seafood, in our drinking water, and even in the rain. Those microplastics have been linked to cancer and a range of other health issues, though their full impact is yet to be studied.
Replacing plastic products with CDA, especially CDA foam, could make a huge difference in reducing our exposure to microplastics.
"CDA foams could be the favorable choice of material for food-packaging applications with potential benefits to society worth hundreds of millions of dollars annually," the study's authors concluded. "Foaming of biodegradable bioplastics thus represents a promising strategy toward minimizing the environmental impacts of frequently mismanaged consumer plastics."
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