Germs to eat buveera

Dec 16, 2002

Scientists in India say they have found a way of luring germs to eat up plastics. If their discovery is successfully applied, then the world will have a new generation of plastics that breaks down into carbon dioxide and water when left to rot.

By Charles Wendo

Scientists in India say they have found a way of luring germs to eat up plastics. If their discovery is successfully applied, then the world will have a new generation of plastics that breaks down into carbon dioxide and water when left to rot.

Ordinarily, plastic bags (buveera), sacks, bottles, vessels and food packaging materials can lurk in the environment for decades without rotting. In so doing they choke soil and tangle vegetation. But chemists at the National Chemical Laboratory in Pune, India, say they have found a way of producing sugary plastics that are attractive to degrading germs. They do this by adding sugar to plastics during manufacture.

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