It’s estimated that Americans recycle over 6.3 billion pounds of plastic a year, and while that’s a great thing, there’s still a ton of work that needs to be done to minimize plastic waste on the planet. The good news is that new technological advances and new products such as shape-shifting plastics that can be used for different things have steadily been helping to reduce the waste, costs, and even improving the efficiency of many processes as well.
Of course, any new invention has a product development process that can take years to perfect. In this blog, you’ll find a few innovations and trends that have already been implemented and put through the process so they are indeed as perfect as they can be.
Bacteria That Are Capable of Breaking Down Plastics
Believe it or not, some of those creepy, crawly caterpillars that you see outside of your home could carry a bacteria that is capable of breaking down plastics. These wax worms live in the wild, and sixty of them can eat up to 4.5 square inches of plastic a week. Scientists are steadily doing research into what causes the bacteria to destroy the plastic and hope to have an answer in the near future. This breakthrough would be great for the environment and plastic everywhere.
Toothpaste Tubes that Are Fully Recyclable
The idea for recycling toothbrushes and toothpaste tubes has been going on for a while now and is a great way to begin recycling. Colgate recently did its part to go green by introducing the first fully recyclable toothpaste tube. At one time, it was impossible to recycle the tubes because they have a small strip of aluminium running through them. The new Colgate tubes have no aluminium, making them fully recyclable.
Building Shelters with Plastics
Bamboo House India is a company that recently built a bus stop hub out of 1,000 used plastic water bottles. It took 15 days to build, and due to the weather in the area it isn’t expected to last, but it opened up the door for better shelters to be built in the future and the hope that it may spread to other regions as well. Permanent plastic, recycled shelters would be the perfect way to recycle plastics and do a lot to protect the earth.
Identifying Ocean Plastic by Satellite
Ocean Cleanup is a non-profit group who is using state-of-the-art technology to search for and clean up the plastics that are polluting the oceans and killing marine life. Recently, they’ve started using machine and satellite imaging to identify the almost five trillion pieces of plastic waste that are polluting the ocean floors. It is possible that they could find and collect over 50% of that waste in the next five years. That would be a huge step for ocean life and the environment as well. It’s also safer than divers going down to try to retrieve the plastics, which is a win-win for everyone.
3D Printed Plastic Braces
Plastic solutions like Invisalign have been available for some time now, and they work wonders for everyone’s teeth, teens and adults alike. Recently, it’s been looking like it’ll be possible to make your own plastic braces at home with 3D printing. This type of printing has been making a name for itself everywhere, including the healthcare field and business owners love it. This one might be quite a way off from being perfect, but it sure will be in time.
These are just a few of the latest innovations and trends in the plastics industry you should know about. Plastics are bad for the earth, but with the inventions above, the ones to come, and constant recycling, it’s looking better all the time.
