Bio-degradable polymers, Polimers, Sustainability

A bio-polymer stronger than PET ready to mass manufacture

Posted on by FedeV

A new study by researchers at Kobe University successfully engineered E. coli to produce a biodegradable plastic alternative called PDCA. This alternative has physical properties comparable to or better than PET plastic. The team achieved a production concentration more than seven times higher than previously reported, demonstrating an efficient method for creating nitrogen-containing compounds without harmful byproducts. The findings lay the groundwork for a scalable and sustainable alternative to petroleum-based plastics.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2025/09/250904014137.htm

Read more: A bio-polymer stronger than PET ready to mass manufacture

Polimers

If you have to choose between the health problems that could be created by the nanoplastics vs. the cost of recycling, then maybe it’s actually cheaper to recycle.

Posted on by FedeV

“75% of all plastic used is made of really thin alternating layers: hard, soft, hard, soft, and so on. We’ve known since the 1950s that the soft stuff is holding the hard stuff together.

What we show in the new study is how easily those soft connectors break even under quiescent conditions such as in a landfill. Once that layer fails, the hard segments have nowhere to go — they scatter into the environment.Why is that a problem?

These pieces float around, and some end up in human bodies. The smallest pieces pass through cells and into the nucleus, where they can start messing with DNA. Nano- and microplastics, which seem to have similar sizes and shapes to asbestos, raise the potential that they could cause cancer, heart disease/stroke, and other diseases.”

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