OT news / p2pnet: Yesterday’s virtually indestructible Styrofoam coffee cup could become tomorrow’s biodegradable plastic fork.

At least, that’s the hope of Kevin O’Connor of University College Dublin.

Styrofoam was accidentally discovered by German apothecary Eduard Simon in 1839. And it’s literally been around ever since, polluting environments and causing insurmountable disposal problems around the world.

As things stand, crunch it, shred it, compress it, and all you’re doing is altering its physical structure.

But, "Help may come from bacteria that have been found to eat Styrofoam and turn it into useable plastic," say O’Connor and his colleagues.

They, "heated polystyrene foam, the generic name for Styrofoam, to convert it to styrene oil," says LiveScience. "The natural form of styrene is in real peanuts, strawberries and a good steak. A synthetic form is used in car parts and electronic components.

"Anyway, the scientists fed this styrene oil to the soil bacteria Pseudomonas putida, which converted it into biodegradable plastic known as PHA (polyhydroxyalkanoates).

"PHA can be used to make plastic forks and packaging film. It is resistant to heat, grease and oil. It also lasts a long time. But unlike Styrofoam, PHA biodegrades in soil and water."

The process will be detailed in the April 1 issue of the American Chemical Society journal Environmental Science & Technology, adds LiveScience.

The caption to Boogie’s College Humor pic (upper right) is, "Well, look at the bright side. Styrofoam is really good for the environment."

Also See:
LiveScience - Immortal Styrofoam Meets its Enemy, March 6, 2006

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 8th, 2006 at 1:41 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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