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posted by takyon on Tuesday November 27 2018, @06:44PM   Printer-friendly
from the snap,-crinkle,-and-poop dept.

The University of Nottingham:

Using a special technical approach, the team is working on plastic films derived from konjac flour and starch, cellulose or proteins that are fully edible and harmless if accidentally eaten by people or animals—unlike health issues associated with microplastics and other plastic waste that make their way into the food chain.

The researchers have found that plant carbohydrate and protein macromolecules bond together into a special network structure during the film-forming process. The network structure provides the film with a required mechanical strength and transparent appearance for the film to be used as packaging materials.

The idea is to reduce incidence of plastic in the environment.


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  • (Score: 5, Interesting) by qzm on Tuesday November 27 2018, @07:56PM (7 children)

    by qzm (3260) on Tuesday November 27 2018, @07:56PM (#767015)

    How well does it hold up to bacteria, fungus, or mould?
    Or have we simply forgotten the purpose of wrapping food?

    IMHO attacking the massive OVER PACKAGING of things would be a much MUCH more productive start, but then that doesnt create a profit center for anyone.

    We are banning supermarket plastic bags, and yet we still happily buy a big bad of chips containing a dozen small bags each containing about a dozen chips for kids school lunches.
    We are drinking out coffee made from plastic single use, usually throwaway potlets of ground coffee.
    I watch people pick up a bunch of bananas in the supermarket and double-bag it in the fruit+veg tearoff bags, then put it in their environmentally sound reusable shopping bag..

    Plastic is a huge advantage for some food safety, but marketing and 'convenience' has created a packaging monster, that is the problem.

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  • (Score: 4, Funny) by DannyB on Tuesday November 27 2018, @09:33PM (5 children)

    by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday November 27 2018, @09:33PM (#767048) Journal

    but then that doesnt create a profit center for anyone.

    Solution: employ people to remove the excessive packaging and repackage in something simpler. This can either be done as a post-production step at the product producer, or as an intake step at supermarkets.

    If enough thought is put into it, there must be a way to get the government to pay for a program like this.

    --
    People today are educated enough to repeat what they are taught but not to question what they are taught.
    • (Score: 2) by c0lo on Tuesday November 27 2018, @10:15PM (4 children)

      by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday November 27 2018, @10:15PM (#767063) Journal

      It 's funny... until you look at it and realise it had good chances to happen as you described.

      this should say a lot about my confidence of humans manifesting common sense

      --
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
      • (Score: 2) by DannyB on Wednesday November 28 2018, @02:24PM (2 children)

        by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday November 28 2018, @02:24PM (#767302) Journal

        This is why we should not be colonizing other planets. And certainly not out to the stars. If we can't even stop ourselves from making this one uninhabitable, why should we get another one?

        --
        People today are educated enough to repeat what they are taught but not to question what they are taught.
        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 28 2018, @03:15PM (1 child)

          by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 28 2018, @03:15PM (#767313)

          The reasoning is the same as buying a new USB thumbstick because it is a lot easier than going through and managing the old USB thumbstick that is filled with a lot of unnecessary cruft. It's that whole needing to add energy to reduce entropy thing.

          • (Score: 2) by c0lo on Wednesday November 28 2018, @09:23PM

            by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday November 28 2018, @09:23PM (#767503) Journal

            It's that whole needing to add energy to reduce entropy thing.

            There's no total reduction of entropy.
            To live, an organism needs to increase the entropy of the environment more than the reduction of entropy necessary to maintain the life.
            Extinguishing other life forms unnecessarily (e.g. by poisoning the env with plastics) runs contrary to the purpose.

            --
            https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
      • (Score: 2) by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us on Wednesday November 28 2018, @03:59PM

        by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us (6553) on Wednesday November 28 2018, @03:59PM (#767329) Journal

        humans manifesting common sense

        Now that's comedy!

        --
        This sig for rent.
  • (Score: 2) by c0lo on Tuesday November 27 2018, @10:31PM

    by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday November 27 2018, @10:31PM (#767064) Journal

    How well does it hold up to bacteria, fungus, or mould?

    It's biodegradable, so YMMV.
    I assume it's safe for some time and if you keep it dry, but inevitable it will absorb some water and allow the bio- to -degrade it.

    Since it's digestible by humans, I suspect it's quite energy rich for microbes/fungi. I mean, look, microbes are able to break down cellulose and chitin as a food source, humans can't

    --
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford