Algae-based plastics

The paper considers a problem of the modern epoch, i.e. global pollution with the plastic waste. Over the entire period of the plastic industry, there appeared about 8.3 billion tons of plastic products (for comparison, equal in weight to the 822 thousand Eiffel Towers!). However, not a single plastic product is able to decompose completely without causing harm to the nature. Plastic forms garbage islands (the largest island has an area equal to three Frances), wild life could be entangled in it or mistake it for food. During only the plastics production, enormous amount of the harmful substances (ammonia, dibutyl phthalate, carbon monoxide, etc.) are released into the environment. These and other problems associated with the use of plastics make scientists think about design and development of the new more environment friendly (i.e. biodegradable) plastics. Objective of the paper lies in developing a new environment friendly polymer that could replace the plastics. The study results in creating a biodegradable packaging based on the compounds obtained from the algae.

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