“Go to work on an egg” was the slogan of a successful British television advert and “green chemists” from the UK are doing just that with plans to create plastics made from eggshells.
Scientists from the University of Leicester in England are experimenting with a process that extracts the proteins found in eggshells, called glycosaminoglycans, which are commonly used in the pharmaceutical industry to help people with cartilage and connective tissue problems.
The aim of the current project is to adapt the proteins to create a starch-based plastic that could then “bulk up” existing plastics and be molded into anything from shop fitting to supermarket meal trays.
The biodegradable composite material is being lined up to make egg boxes, to serve as a practical example of closed-loop recycling.
Biodegradable plastics have been used commercially for years, with corn-based plastic water bottles some of the more common and visible applications. Yet the UK still uses around 5 million tons of oil-based plastics each year, according to the British Plastics Federation.
Source: CNN