About 14 billion pounds of waste enters and pollutes the oceans every year. To remedy this issue, researchers are searching for eco-friendly alternatives and biodegradable solutions. Natupharma, a supplier of sports nutrition, food supplements, pet nutrition, and ECO packaging, has developed a new type of recyclable plastic called ‘green plastic’ for pharmaceutical packaging.
When it comes to medicine, packaging isn’t likely to be the first thing on your mind. It’s of vast importance that every pharmaceutical be contained in a packaging that ensures safety from foreign contaminants.
The alternative plastic is made by combining sugarcane with a biodegradable plastic additive. When processed in a certain way, sugarcane can be transformed into a commercial material that is both recyclable and CO2 neutral. The ‘green plastic’ degrades in 10 years and, therefore, is an ideal solution for pharmaceutical industries worldwide.
When the production of the ‘green plastic’ product is complete, it’s equally as durable as traditional petroleum plastic. After initial testing to create environmentally friendly packaging, researchers used a biodegradable plastic additive which they combined with sugarcane to make a ‘green plastic. This additive boosts the biodegradability of packaging without changing the product’s shelf-life, the physical properties of the material nor increasing the use of resin.
Furthermore, the additive enables microbes in the natural environment to secrete acids and consume green plastic. In less than ten years, the material is converted into carbon dioxide, methane, biomass and water. Ten years to completion of the degradation process is much faster than petroleum plastic, which can take hundreds of years to degrade.
Natupharma isn’t the only company making alternative plastic materials. Australian researchers transformed agricultural waste, leftover plant matter, from the banana industry into non-toxic, biodegradable bioplastic. According to Natupharma, the technology’s patent for ‘green plastic’ is currently pending, but they are poised to provide this packaging when the time comes.
