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The plastic, the protagonist of the economic boom of the last century, propeller material of countless innovations from the 900 to date, become our curse.
Drinking straws in the nose of sea turtles, nets and bags in the belly of the whale, and microplastics in the land, in water and even in our bodies: we are living in a new geological era, marked by dallinquinamento plastic and adorned our nomelAntropocene.
We know that reduce production and consumption of plastic and the only way to put the ban disposable plastic between the European objectives by 2021 but, in practice, get 7 billion people to give up more and more present in daily life objects seems to nothing short of utopian.
While the return to the good old returnable and desirable bulk, of the other c those seeking alternatives to plastic to retain its advantageous properties, but exceed their disposal problems.
Here is a list of materials that could permanently replace the plastic in the sea change that we face.
The PLA, one of the most well-known biodegradable polymers, is produced from renewable sources such as corn lamido and can assume physical properties very close to the traditional plastic.
The strong similarity may help convince even the most wary consumers, but also a critical aspect in this time of transition, where still present The alternative fossil plastic.
The disposable objects in PLA are in fact biodegradable and compostable, that is suitable for industrial composting, and must therefore be thrown into dellorganico basket.
Even the new Bio Bottle of water are SantAnna PLA and go nellorganico, while the old plastic cap again and should be discarded separately.
This particular is not specified on the label of the bulk bottle, although it is indicated on the companys site, and an example of how the design and labeling are fundamental in compostable packaging diffusion in order to avoid contamination from damage.
But the question that apocalyptic arises: will end up lAmazzonia deforested to cultivate fields of corn and produce PLA?
On the same wavelength also travels the Mater-Bi, a very versatile material patented dallitaliana Novamont.
It has a different chemical composition from the PLA, but always derived from corn starch and vegetable oils, which the company says no GMOs and cultivated in Europe.
The diffusion of tableware in Mater-biche already exist currently hampered by the costs, which is not necessarily a bad thing: The alternative when in fossil plastic will be banned altogether, this aspect could indeed dissuade consumers dalluso the disposable daily.
Then the invention of edible water, or edible water, of a group of dellImperial College London, which failed to incorporate portions of water in an edible film produced from marine algae.
Notpla the name of this innovative material and its creators underline the superior quality compared to other bioplastics, including PLA.
First, the brown algae which produce can grow up to one meter per day, representing a more efficient source of food crops such as corn.
In addition, the Notpla biodegrades in soil very brevi4-6 settimanee time does not require industrial composting for disposal.
But the edible design to put some doubt: from transportation to distribution, the bubble seem to need more containers to function and not as clear as they can be stored before breaking down.
They were distributed to participants by operators equipped with gloves, allowing to reduce the use of bottles of water.
All in all, though few pairs of gloves have replaced many plastic bottles, the game seems to be worth the candle.
How come in daily life is still uncertain, but, in the meantime, the group is working on the creation of other objects in Notpla, and new solutions for sustainable packaging.
The nopal, a cactus of the same family of our Dindia fig tree, a very present plant in Mexico, where a professor of chemical engineering at the Universidad del Valle de Atemajac has patented a new bio-polymer mixing its juice with other elements, such as vegetable wax, obtaining a material suitable to realize edible and biodegradable packaging nellambiente in a few weeks.
According linventrice Pascoe Ortizche lagroecologia also studied as an economic development strategy sostenibilequesta valuable raw material because the cacti grow in arid environments (where not steal food allagricoltura space), they do not require fertilizers and avoid the waste of water resources.
At the moment, the cactus-polymer would not be as durable as the plastic, but useful in disposable applications for which the essential biodegradability.
Among the sustainable alternatives to, we not only polymers: Also existing materials always, to which only given a new purpose.
To overcome at least part of the problem related alloverpackaging, supermarkets Vietnam, Thailand, Philippines and Bali have begun to pack perishable foods in a banana leaves solution with several advantages: first, the native and abundant banana in the region; second, green packaging is very radical in terms of costs and carbon footprint.
The most breathable material in question of traditional packaging, allowing fungi to remain fresh for a longer time and absorbing lumidit in place.
Obviously this type of packaging used for other foods, leaving us to imagine a possible use of large scale.
Of course, already in 2011 the artist Jae Rhim Leediscutendo in his TEDTalk damage of the traditional funeral sullambiente system and how trying to preserve our body beyond life, not only deny death but we poison the living and we damage the ambienteaveva introduced to public Infinity Burial project project.
The proposed Lee was to bury the dead wearing Infinity Suit, a mushroom suit, which decomposes the body and absorbs its toxins, to return the remains as nutritious compost poison instead.

From Vice