Self-destructing materials could be the new form of recycling plastic wastes

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With the high rate of environmental pollution and degradation that our planet is constantly faced with, due to increase in population; it has become imperative that we manage waste products adequately, efficient and ethically also, to reduce the environmental impact these waste pollution regularly have on the environment.

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Science and technology has given us fascinating ways of recycling waste products into other consumer items or products of value; however, not every region or nation in the world can boast of rapid implementation of these waste recycling processes.

Studies have shown that items such as plastic trash, aluminum and metals scraps, mobile phones, and other non-degradable materials account for the large tons of waste products thrown away daily.

With modern science today, various forms of research are being considered with regards to finding a more permanent and efficient solution geared towards managing waste products of non-degradable nature.

What if your phone could easily degrade through nature’s recycling plan, once it is no longer in use? What if plastic items which pollute the environment and oceans massively could dissolve and degrade naturally instead of us having the challenge of recycling them or incinerating them once they are dead and gone?

As part of the fight against environmental pollution and degradation, researchers at Stanford University, the Technical University in Munich and various research and development organizations around the world, have discovered ways of creating materials that self-destruct through nature’s biodegradation.

Challenges of Artificial Materials which are created to last

Many of our mainstay consumables and household items such as electronics, fabrics, plastics and more are usually produced through fossil fuels and petroleum by-products. These items do not biodegrade like materials made from natural Earth-based resources like plants and trees.

Now even though one of our major energy resource, petroleum, is obtained by means of the biodegradation of dinosaurs and prehistoric faunas, when products such as plastics and other commodities are created by manufacturers using petroleum hydrocarbon, they end up producing indestructible items.

Propylene which is the main ingredient derived from petroleum products, turns into polypropylene during the process of manufacture. And the chemical processes involved which includes elements such as heat and catalyst applied during the production process create a carbon-based polypropylene chain. These chains then form indestructible bonds in the chemical compounds of products, which become difficult to breakdown by Earth’s natural recycling process.

It took billions of years for nature to develop organisms that could break down organic matter, a process which could not work with man-made products of petroleum. But with these new scientific procedures, nature would be given a boost in environmental recycling, as man-made and artificial products can now be degraded through natural means.

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Concept of Self-Destructive Materials

Organic matter would begin to degrade once it is not in balance within an environment and this aids its degradation without the input from sources that could help rebuild the cellular structures within such matter. However, most artificial and man-made materials are stable in nature and do not exchange molecules with the environment and hence are basically indestructible. Therefore, the idea of self-destructive materials would be to create products whose molecules can interact with the environment, leading to faster means of degradation when required.

Life Cycle of Self-Destructive Materials

By studying nature’s processes, researchers at the Technical University in Munich, Germany have discovered ways to make materials degrade and self-destruct. Part of their research highlighted the fact that when such products lack energy sources like adenosine triphosphate, they self-destruct and break-down in similar fashion to the way nature recycles and degrades organic matter.

An energy source like adenosine triphosphate is a coenzyme in the human body which the body uses to convert carbohydrates and proteins to energy, and converts glucose from fats. Now, in the absence of this energy source, man-made products begin to degrade and die, just like in nature.

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Uses of Self-destructive materials

Faux wood made from biodegradable plastics has been developed by scientists at Stanford University. These biodegradable plastics can replace the present-day indestructible plastics. The faux wood can be used in manufacturing biodegradable electronics, building materials and even plastic bottles that can easily break down. The research has also proven that virtually any product manufactured with non-destructible or man-made material components, can equally be created from these new self-destructive materials.

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Medical Applications of self-destructive materials

The new discovery has aided engineers and researchers to postulate that by making materials that are capable of self-destruction or breaking down into their original building blocks, frameworks for drug delivery and transplant anchors can also be made.

Recently, UCLA researchers have also been able to develop a ‘hydrogel’ that creates a scaffold which allows wounds to heal rapidly and also allow tissues to regenerate while the structure biodegrades.

The newly developed hydrogel helps to promote rapid regeneration which allows for various medical uses, such as wounds and skin grafts, to quickly heal.

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Man-Made Materials and its Environmental Impact

Back in January 2017, an article published by The Guardian Newspaper online stated that;

“annual consumption of plastic bottles is set to top half a trillion by 2021, far outstripping recycling efforts and jeopardizing oceans, coastlines and other environments.”

The report also purported that the world’s plastic addiction is more dangerous that climate change. Man-made plastic products have a negative effect on both the environmental health of oceans and the Earth at large.

The report also highlighted statistics which showed that about a million plastics are purchased every minute, and such worrisome statistic is pushing towards massive environmental crises.

Also highlighted in the report is the statistic that only half of all the plastics purchased for various uses are ever recycled eventually.

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In Summary

This latest scientific discovery shows that materials which self-destruct can go a long way in alleviating the developing environmental crisis which is threatening to overtake our oceans and environment as a whole, through waste pollution.

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Through the process of developing products that are capable of self-degradation, chemicals and plastics will not have the potential of causing pollution havoc to the Earth’s biosphere.

Adopting the new technology involved in the production of self-destructive materials could mean that scientists may be able to develop less costly methods of collecting and recycling existing petroleum-made plastics into other uses.

The future of our environment would be brighter using this new procedure. But the first step towards eliminating plastic and other environmental pollution would be to cultivate a habit of recycling at home, work and school.

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Reference: 1, 2

Further Reading: 1, 2, 3, 4

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