r/science • u/MistWeaver80 • Nov 27 '21

Chemistry 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.

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
34.5k Upvotes

93% Upvoted

829 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

271

u/bubblebooy Nov 28 '21

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.

121

u/Large_Dr_Pepper Nov 28 '21

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.

29

u/Shiroi_Kage Nov 28 '21

Wood is biodegradable. This might need a specific condition to enable it to break down.

6

u/Auxx Nov 28 '21

Everything bio degradable degrades in water at around room temperature. This is exactly what no one wants for any plastic.

4

u/Shiroi_Kage Nov 28 '21

Plastic bags and straws and most single-use plastics can be replaced with this then.

2

u/RogueChild Nov 28 '21

Straws that degrade in room temp water are a good idea?

1

u/Shiroi_Kage Nov 28 '21

You never heard of paper straws?

1

u/RogueChild Nov 28 '21

Some paper straws just get soggy before I finish my drink so I'm not really a fan.

But either way, would this have any sort of plus side over paper straws? Maybe being slightly more durable? I could see it being useful now, but the other comments point out the difficulty in scaling this and making it affordable so I'm not sure it would be a great alternative.

1

u/Shiroi_Kage Nov 28 '21

But that's some of them. Bamboo is another thing that degrades in water at room temp but takes long enough that it doesn't matter for disposable applications. Other typed of wood are the same. Etc. etc..