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Introducing Ooho!, an edible, biodegradable water bottle made of seaweed and calcium chloride-based membrane. New edible, plastic-free water bottles could save the environment Skip to main content
Biodegradable material is capable of decomposing without an oxygen source (anaerobically) into carbon dioxide, water, and biomass, but the timeline is not very specifically defined. Similarly, compostable material breaks down into carbon dioxide, water, and biomass; however, compostable material also breaks down into inorganic compounds.
It is estimated that in the U.S. alone, consumers use 1,500 plastic water bottles every single second. But only about 23% of PET plastic, which is the plastic used in disposable plastic water bottles, gets recycled. Thus, about 38 billion water bottles are thrown away annually, equating to roughly $1 billion worth of plastic. [3]
Biodegradable additives are additives that enhance the biodegradation of polymers by allowing microorganisms to utilize the carbon within the polymer chain as a source of energy. Biodegradable additives attract microorganisms to the polymer through quorum sensing after biofilm creation on the plastic product.
A goal is not to elicit the immune response, and the products of degradation also need not to be toxic. These are important as biodegradable polymers are used for drug delivery where it is critical to slowly release the drug into the body over time instead of all at once and that the pill is stable in the bottle until ready to be taken. [8]
Biodegradable waste includes any organic matter in waste which can be broken down into carbon dioxide, water, methane, compost, humus, and simple organic molecules by micro-organisms and other living things by composting, aerobic digestion, anaerobic digestion or similar processes.
The solubility of BPA in water is low (~300 g per ton of water) [2] but this is still sufficient to make it a significant means of distribution into the environment. [97] Many of the largest sources of BPA pollution are water-based, particularly wastewater from industrial facilities using BPA.
That being said, the recycling rate for PET bottles and jars was 29.9 percent (890,000 tons) and the recycling of HDPE water and milk jugs was 30.3 percent (230,000 tons). [5] From 1960 to 2015, this graph represents the total number of tons of plastic containers generated, recycled, composted, combusted with energy recovery and landfilled [5]