Anicet Mbida 06:52 am, March 23, 2023
Anicet Mbida gives us every morning what is best in innovation. This Thursday, he is interested in the discovery of scientists from the Chinese Academy of Sciences who have just developed a new technique for making glass, which makes it biodegradable in just a few months or years.
Today's innovation could do good for the planet. We already knew that glass was infinitely recyclable. Now, we also know how to make it biodegradable.
Much greener glass with an even lower environmental impact!
We are all aware of the pollution of plastic bottles. And for good reason, they take several hundred years to decompose in nature. But do you know how long it takes for glass bottles?
So of course, glass has the advantage of being recyclable. But this is the case for only a third of the glass discarded. The rest, the overwhelming majority, end up in landfills or at the bottom of the ocean. This is why scientists from the Chinese Academy of Sciences have just developed a new technique for making glass. A technique that makes it biodegradable in just a few years or months. They even had an amazing experiment: they put glass marbles in the compost. And after a few weeks, they had totally decomposed.
It's not going to be practical, a carafe or a windshield that decomposes in a few months.
Fortunately, the technique makes it possible to choose the rate of degradation. We can create both ephemeral cups for distributors and champagne flutes that last several decades.
They also tested their glass under the skin of the mice. And here too, it completely decomposed in a few weeks, without leaving the slightest impact, or causing pain. This means that it could also be used to create medical implants that would not need to be removed, since they would gradually resorb without leaving traces. A glass that opens up a lot of perspectives.
Does it keep the same characteristics as the glass we know today?
Yes. It is also transparent. You can mold it, 3D print it and of course recycle it. On the other hand, it is a little less resistant and above all, it costs much more to manufacture. This is unfortunately the lot of the most virtuous products. But as IPCC officials would say, "the ecological transition is going to be expensive. But let's not forget that inaction will cost us even more! »