The alternative to plastic from fish waste
Recently, the European Union released a statement warning that the amount of plastics and other waste is increasing in our seas and oceans.
In the "war" against materials that threaten the oceans, there are many initiatives, some with greater depth and others with less, but what we are clear is that their reduction should be a priority knowing that plastic takes about 700 years to produce. decompose (See article how recycling bins work).
Today we discover that, just as the oceans feed us, they also have the solution to their palpable degradation. It's called the MarinaTex plastic, and according to experts, a perfect and innovative solution to conventional single-use plastic has just been found.
The MarinaTex, is a compostable plastic alternative made from skin and flakes of fish whose proteins are extracted and bound by red algae.
The residues of the fishing industry are abundant and directly go to the landfill that, for example and to have the data, the United Kingdom and throughout a year, the fishing produces 492,020 tonnes of waste.
The innovative material invented by Lucy hughes (University of Sussex) has been honored this year by the James Dyson Award, which honors innovative designs that have an impact on the environment.
The MarinaTex brings together the perfect capabilities; It is a sheet of translucent material, flexible and more resistant than conventional plastic (higher tensile strength). It can be completely biodegraded in home food recycling bins or compost without leaching with environmentally toxic chemicals.
Ideal for applications in packaging (single-use plastics such as; bakery bag or all types of perishable food packaging) since it is biodegradable and within six to four weeks it will completely disappear without a trace.
MarinaTex is biodegradable and will disappear within 6 to 4 weeks without a trace
The Traditional plastic requires high temperatures and fossil fuels to manufacture. But nevertheless, MarinaTex can be manufactured with temperatures below 100 degrees, that is, not requires neither much energy for its production nor super advanced technology. As the material uses waste from the fishing industry, we are helping to close the life cycle (See article what is the circular economy).
"It doesn't make sense that we're using plastic, an incredibly durable material, for products that have a life cycle of less than a day," says Hughes.
Researcher Hughes is not the first to take advantage of plastic properties of fish wasteBut the project takes bioplastics a step further, perfecting the material and showing its many applications in real life.
Remember that we have two articles of interest from this same website; How to make a machine to recycle plastic at home and how Australia manages to reduce 80% of the use of plastic bags.
The goal of Europe is to ensure that by the end of 2022 no more than 90 light bags are consumed per person per year. And in 2025 they want to reduce this number to 40 bags. The problem of plastic in the oceans is being unstoppable:
- Not only does plastic litter the shores, it also hurts marine animals that become entangled in larger chunks and mistake smaller chunks for food. Ingesting plastic particles can prevent them from digesting normal foods and could attract toxic chemical contaminants into their bodies.
- Humans eat plastic through the food chain. How this affects our health is still unknown.
- Marine debris causes economic losses to sectors and communities that depend on the sea, but also to manufacturers: only 5% of the value of plastic packaging remains in the economy; the rest is literally dumped, demonstrating the need for a more focused approach to recycling and reusing materials.
And really, we should have a global thinking if we want to survive in the era of “throwaway” consumption.
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