Farewell to Plastic

Sulapac

licencing_06

人類每年棄掉三億噸塑膠垃圾,這些生產以後,便幾乎永久地長留在地球上的東西,有些被埋在土裡,有些漂進大海,有些跑進鳥兒的肚被,有些塞進海龜的鼻子裡⋯⋯塑膠方便,卻同時成為地球的災難。

芬蘭的生物化學家Suvi Haimi及Laura Kyllonen,看見家裡浴室大部份都是用完即棄的塑膠,越看越憂心,下定決心研發擁有塑膠的優點,同時能夠分解,不會對地球構成負擔的物料。最終Sulapac順利誕生了。

Sulapac的原材料為木材及天然的接合劑,雖然全是可以作生物分解的材材,然而卻如同塑膠般防水防油、不受氧化影響。更重要的是,塑膠物品生產商,能夠以現有製作塑膠製品時使用的倒模或壓製機械,就能用Sulapac製作商品,無需為它購買特別的新儀器,大大提升了Sulapac的普及性。

Suvi Haimi及Laura Kyllonen最近發表了以Sulapac製作的吸管,能夠被海洋的微生物分解的吸管,某天即使流進大海裡,都不會為海洋生物造成傷害。Sulapac的出現,將會為我們解決了不少塑膠垃圾的問題,但生產的過程始終消耗資源,在迎來新物料的善意之時,別忘了源頭減廢。

Every year, human disposes 300 million tons of plastic waste. Once being produced, the plastic material would remain on the Earth forever — some get buried, some float in the sea, some get eaten by birds, some get stuck inside the nose of the turtles. Plastic is undoubtedly a convenient material, but it can cast a disastrous effect on our mother earth.

Alarmed by the amount of single-use plastic seen in the bathrooms of general households, the Finnish biologists Suvi Haimi and Laura Kyllonen were determined to find a solution. They invented a new material that has the advantage of plastic and yet decomposable. This is the birth of Sulapac, a material that does not bring burden to our earth.

Sulapac is made of wood and natural binders. Unlike plastic, it is fully biodegradable. Nevertheless, it carries the positive quality of plastic, which is water, oil, and oxygen resistant. More importantly, the plastic product manufacturers can easily use their existing mold and machinery to produce with Sulapac. Not needing to invest in new machinery, this convenience has significantly increased the popularity of Sulapac.

Haimi and Kyllonen recently launched their new product — the ocean-friendly Sulapac straw that would not bring harm to the ocean animals. Thanks to its marine degradable nature, even if the straw gets into the sea by accident, the material can be decomposed by microorganisms. Sulapac is seemingly a solution to the plastic waste issue that we are currently facing. However, all the manufacturing process consumes energy and resources. When welcoming this new environmentally friendly material, we still should not forget to reduce our consumption.

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