Tiny Tech #60: 3D Plastic Munchers
Today from the world of Tiny Tech:
Imagine if a piece of plastic in the ocean could be degraded using a crew made of living stickers! Not all bacteria are bad. Some quietly munch plastic. Recently, researchers have 3D-printed biostickers that contain marine bacteria that love to chew on bioplastics.
And no, these are not the normal stickers you put on your phone cases or water bottles.
They contain saltwater-friendly bacteria trapped inside a soft gel-like material, creating a tiny living workforce. When the sticker is placed on PHB, a biodegradable plastic, the living bacteria help the plastic break down more quickly. This is important because the degradation of biodegradable plastics can be slow in ocean water.
By changing the amount of bacteria, the size of the plastic piece, or the temperature, scientists can tune how fast the plastic breaks down. An object made from PHB that is for ocean use, for example a marine sensor with a known useful lifetime, could come with its own sticker that degrades the plastic when the sensor is finished.
In the future, the problem of removing plastic from the oceans might just become a little sticky.
Tiny Tech is made possible by the National Science Foundation and WUFT. To learn more about Tiny Tech, go to tinytechradio.org.
