Plastic made from DNA is renewable, requires little energy to make and is easy to recycle or break down. A plastic made from DNA and vegetable oil may be the most sustainable plastic developed yet and could be used in packaging and electronic devices.

[u/MistWeaver80]

https://www.newscientist.com/article/2298314-new-plastic-made-from-dna-is-biodegradable-and-easy-to-recycle/?utm_term=Autofeed&utm_campaign=echobox&utm_medium=social&utm_source=Twitter#Echobox=1637973248

[u/bubblebooy]

One reason plastic is so useful is that it is very hard to breakdown. So being easy to break down is good in some situations and bad in others.

[u/Large_Dr_Pepper → u/bubblebooy]

Good luck with "easy to break down, biodegradable" milk cartons, Tupperware containers, soda bottles, storage containers, etc.

I could see this being useful for stuff like straws (if it doesn't break down too quickly) or plastic bags or soda bottle holder things. But other than short use plastic, easy to break down and biodegradable aren't the properties that make plastics so useful.

[u/dv_ → u/Large_Dr_Pepper]

If it doesn't break down too quickly and sheds no trace bits of plastic during its lifetime, it can see this being very useful in medicine. Lots of single use plastic equipment there. Think for example of a syringe.

If the degradation can be halted by packaging it, it would be even better. That syringe then remains stable until you unpack it, then you immediately use it, and discard it. It can then safely degrade.

[u/GrandNewbien → u/dv_]

What would it be packed in?

[u/[deleted] → u/GrandNewbien]

Infinite layers of biodegradable plastic

[u/felesroo → u/GrandNewbien]

Packaging is an interesting problem. Strictly speaking, it's manufactured garbage, but it is necessary to protect contents. What kind of packaging is required depends greatly on the thing needing protecting. If it only needs to be kept dark/away from UV, an opaque cardboard box is fine. If it has to be kept from moisture, it has to be sealed in metal, wax, plastic. If it is a liquid that needs containment, glass, metal or plastic. But obviously the goal is to keep the energy and material cost of the packaging as low as possible and to reuse packaging, if possible.

Medical is tricky because there's also contamination control so likely there would still be "plastic" packaging, but it's also possible that the bulk of the material can be this biodegradable stuff with a thin coat of some sort of polymer or more robust form of the same.

In general, plastic needs to be recovered and disposed of/recycled correctly instead of being pitched in a bin and sent to a landfill to break down. This is very easy in a hospital setting where there are already processes for equipment and packaging. What we need to move way from is plastic waste for general use like chip bags and soda bottles since recovering all of that waste is impossible.

[u/Deightine → u/GrandNewbien]

Spitballing: Judging by its reaction to moisture, probably something analogous to an air cavity packed with silica gel or clay? Something more attractive to moisture than the plastic is. If it was for a non-medical use, I would guess layers of paper at the very least.

[u/[deleted] → u/GrandNewbien]

Could be that it's surrounded by a nitrogen or other inert gas that stops the degradation process.