介绍:
Chinese scientists have developed a kind of plastic that is able to degrade in the sea water and could help to cut down the increasingly serious plastic pollution in the oceans.
“The new material can degrade in the sea water over a period ranging from a few days to several hundred days. The small molecules that are left will cause no pollution,” said Wang Gexia, a senior engineer.
“For a long time, people focused on white pollution on land. However, plastic pollution in the seas only caught people’s attention when more and more reports about the sea animals dying from it appeared in recent years,” said Wang. “It’s not easy to obtain this new material. The scientists taking part in this program have gone through some setbacks and difficulties.”
The research was recently selected as one of the 30 winning projects at a contest of innovative future technologies in Shenzhen. The contest was held to inspire the young Chinese scientists to explore and create new technologies with great ideas and innovative spirits.
Four Chinese enterprises have been authorized to use this new technology, with three enterprises going into production with a total annual capacity of half the global biodegradable plastics, which are 75,000 tons.
