The Daily Populous Wednesday December 25th, 2024 evening edition
Authored by bbc.co.uk and submitted by florinzel

Manage consent settings on AMP pages

These settings apply to AMP pages only. You may be asked to set these preferences again when you visit non-AMP BBC pages.

The lightweight mobile page you have visited has been built using Google AMP technology.

To make our web pages work, we store some limited information on your device without your consent.

Read more about the essential information we store on your device to make our web pages work.

We use local storage to store your consent preferences on your device.

When you consent to data collection on AMP pages you are consenting to allow us to display personalised ads that are relevant to you when you are outside of the UK.

Read more about how we personalise ads in the BBC and our advertising partners.

You can choose not to receive personalised ads by clicking “Reject data collection and continue” below. Please note that you will still see advertising, but it will not be personalised to you.

You can change these settings by clicking “Ad Choices / Do not sell my info” in the footer at any time.

ComprehensiveCamp490 on December 25th, 2024 at 08:31 UTC »

I figured an important thing to know that wasn't mentioned here was the cost/scale possible, and I couldn't find anything more concrete than this.

> To present a viable alternative to current plastics, any new materials need to be manufactured at an industrial scale. “Our plastics can be manufactured in water without heating,” said Aida. “We believe that our synthetic process can be scaled up easily.”

> In addition, one of the building blocks is available at a very low price, and the other one can be synthesized in a one-step reaction from commercial chemicals, which could contribute to making this type of material cost-competitive with conventional plastics.

Sounds pretty promising if as good as claimed

Gamer_Koraq on December 25th, 2024 at 05:39 UTC »

Honestly, this sounds pretty exciting. I'm really curious to find out more about the production, costs, etc.

Source with more information: https://phys.org/news/2024-11-durable-supramolecular-plastic-fully-ocean.html

> Researchers led by Takuzo Aida at the RIKEN Center for Emergent Matter Science (CEMS) have developed a new durable plastic that won't pollute our oceans. The new material is as strong as conventional plastics and biodegradable, but what makes it special is that it breaks down in seawater.

...

> The new plastics are non-toxic and non-flammable—meaning no CO2 emissions—and can be reshaped at temperatures above 120°C like other thermoplastics. By testing different types of guanidinium sulfates, the team was able to generate plastics that had varying hardnesses and tensile strengths, all comparable or better than conventional plastics. This means that the new type of plastic can be customized for need; hard scratch-resistant plastics, rubber silicone-like plastics, strong weight-bearing plastics, or low tensile flexible plastics are all possible.

...

> Lastly, the researchers investigated the new plastic's recyclability and biodegradability. After dissolving the initial new plastic in salt water, they were able to recover 91% of the hexametaphosphate and 82% of the guanidinium as powders, indicating that recycling is easy and efficient. In soil, sheets of the new plastic degraded completely over the course of 10 days, supplying the soil with phosphorous and nitrogen similar to a fertilizer.

> "With this new material, we have created a new family of plastics that are strong, stable, recyclable, can serve multiple functions, and importantly, do not generate microplastics," says Aida.

HomeWasGood on December 25th, 2024 at 04:27 UTC »

For some reason when I clicked on the article, I was expecting to say it somehow only works with mice