Recycling has done little to diminish the amount of plastic waste that flows into the environment. As the consequences of plastic pollution have become more evident, many have set out to find alternative materials that perform as well as synthetic polymer-based materials that can safely degrade in the environment.
We’ve recently seen solutions based on organic waste material like seafood shells or from highly renewable resources like seaweed. As it turns out, with a little bit of science, the components required to make durable plastics that also naturally biodegrade are abundant in nature, and researchers in Denmark have now made breakthroughs in using barley to create an alternative to conventional plastics.
