Page 42 - Plastics News April 2023

FEATURE

ers — the exorbitant cost of the raw So, how did we get here? 1960s, because they were cheap to
materials, stringent degradation con- In an article published in PlasticsToday produce, convenient, and far more
ditions, and poor thermal resistance. in 2018, “Grasping at Straws: Organic durable than the alternative. As for re-
They do not comment on straws Illiteracy and the Anti-Plastics Cru- usable straws — long, thin tubes made
made from canola oil–based polyhy- sade,” Rod Groleau writes that the from precious metals, to be precise
droxyalkanoate (PHA), such as the tipping point in the movement to ban — they date back to the Sumerians
phade straw, which can claim some plastic straws was the photo of a tur- about 5,000 years ago. That practice
commercial success. On the phade tle with a straw up its nose that went was abandoned somewhere along the
website, the company claims that viral. “It got me wondering why we timeline of history.
PHA production results in fewer don’t see air-breathing amphibians When plastic straw bans began
greenhouse gas emissions than PLA; inhaling twigs, pencils, and crayons, sweeping the nation, and the world,
is marine degradable and home com- which are solid and could get stuck science stepped up. In 2020, Dani-
postable; and can withstand high-heat much more easily in a nostril,” he mer Scientific and WinCup were
shipping. writes. “It dawned on me that Mother recognized by the Plastics Industry
Nature gave us all two nostrils so that Association for jointly developing the
Be that as it may, the researchers in
Incheon believe they have developed this won’t happen.” first commercially sold biodegradable
a “simple, scalable, low-cost, and Plastic straws have a storied past, as straws made of PHA. These are the
binder-free fabrication strategy for outlined in a National Geographic ar- aforementioned phade straws.
advanced microplastic-free straws . ticle from 2018, “A Brief History of Pretty soon, if all works out for the
. . from edible starch, citric acid, and How Plastic Straws Took Over the researchers in Incheon, we may have
lignin, readily available and economi- World.” In a nutshell, plastic straws yet one more alternative to a plastic
cal resources as opposed to energy- displaced paper straws, which were straw that, well, doesn’t suck.
intensive cellulose-based straws.” popular for several decades, in the

Vadodara teen on mission to purge plastic from water bodies

"I got the patent for the technology tic waste is found in large quantities,"
I developed from the government. I Saikia said.
want to employ Flipper for a larger The youngster recently got admis-
cause and address plastic waste men- sion to Carnegie Mellon University in
ace that is harming aquatic lives and the US on a full scholarship. Saikia has
polluting the water bodies," Saikia, a opted for environmental engineering
student of Navrachana Sama School, degree as he wants to take his project
told TOI. on a larger scale.
"Flipper can pick up floating waste "I have already networked with over
ranging from 150kg to 500 tonnes 250 volunteers from different coun-
depending on the size of the vessel. tries in the world. We meet online
The automated vessel that runs on and I suggest various ways to keep the
e is just 17. But Varun Saikia, a artificial intelligence (Al) can operate
HBarodian has taken up a bid to by itself or be attached to any ship for water bodies clean. I have also taught
free water bodies across the globe of picking up the waste," Saikia said. some of them to build the automatic
plastic waste along with his mate 'Flip- water cleaning machine," Saikia add-
per', a hi- tech cleaning vessel. One "Flipper has a camera fitted that de- ed.
mission, Varun recently got a patent tects plastic waste and picks it up. The The boy, who has also floated a start-
from the government for his tech- device on board also has a system that up, is also in talks with the state gov-
nological gadget. Flipper doesn't just identifies the type of plastic waste it ernments of Gujarat, Assam and Ma-
pick up plastic waste but also simu- has picked up and also logs the spot. harashtra to provide this technology.
lates pathways of the garbage from This way, we can have data on the
rivers to the oceans! spots in the water bodies where plas-

42 PLASTICS NEWS April 2023