Plastics are incredibly useful materials with extremely diverse properties, allowing a multitude of different applications that benefit our lives. But, with marine plastic debris estimated to reach 250 million tonnes by 2025, governments across the globe are starting to think about how to overcome this significant problem.
The majority of plastics are made using oil-based materials, meaning that, by their chemical nature, many plastics have no oxygen content. This makes them very difficult for common bacteria to break them down if they enter the environment.
Over the past few decades, the concept of using bio-based materials as a resource rather than oil-based materials has gained momentum. These natural, bio-based materials can easily be broken down into smaller chemical building blocks – called “platform molecules” — which in turn, can be used to make other useful chemicals, including plastics.
Plastics are incredibly useful materials with extremely diverse properties, allowing a multitude of different applications that benefit our lives. But, with marine plastic debris estimated to reach 250 million tonnes by 2025, governments across the globe are starting to think about how to overcome this significant problem.
The majority of plastics are made using oil-based materials, meaning that, by their chemical nature, many plastics have no oxygen content. This makes them very difficult for common bacteria to break them down if they enter the environment.
Over the past few decades, the concept of using bio-based materials as a resource rather than oil-based materials has gained momentum. These natural, bio-based materials can easily be broken down into smaller chemical building blocks – called “platform molecules” — which in turn, can be used to make other useful chemicals, including plastics.
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