Plastic that Dissolves in Seawater within Hours

Thursday, June 05, 2025

Researchers in Japan have developed a plastic that dissolves in seawater within hours, offering up a potential solution for a modern-day scourge polluting oceans and harming wildlife. While scientists have long experimented with biodegradable plastics, researchers from the RIKEN Center for Emergent Matter Science and the University of Tokyo say their new material breaks down much more quickly and leaves no residual trace.

Posted by HeliumRat at 11:10 AM | 3 COMMENTS | permalink | Comment on This Entry |

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Aida said the new material is as strong as petroleum-based plastics, but breaks down into its original components when exposed to salt. Those components can then be further processed by naturally occurring bacteria, thereby avoiding generating microplastics that can harm aquatic life and enter the food chain. As salt is also present in soil, a piece about five centimeters (two inches) in size disintegrates on land after over 200 hours, he added.

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Rumor has it that OceanGate is looking into this product for their next submersible craft.

#1 | Posted by censored at 2025-06-05 11:12 AM | Reply

200 hours is not going to be long enough life for commerical use. Needs to be like 20,000 hours.

#2 | Posted by snoofy at 2025-06-05 11:40 AM | Reply

Biodegradable plastic is a misnomer, it just breaks down into microplastic particles and we all know those are a huge problem already.

They hedge in this article by saying "...breaks down into its original components when exposed to salt. Those components can then be further processed by naturally occurring bacteria..." but notice they don't mention which bacteria or how common it is.

Works great in a lab I'm sure but without gathering all this stuff up and intentionally feeding it to vats of bacteria it's just more microplastic junk in the soil and oceans.

#3 | Posted by qcp at 2025-06-05 11:50 AM | Reply