this post was submitted on 06 Jun 2025
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467
Scientists in Japan develop plastic that dissolves in seawater within hours (www.reuters.com)
submitted 2 days ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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[–] [email protected] 110 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

~~I feel like soluble plastic can't be a good thing actually~~

Edit: the plastic chemically decomposes in water, it does not dissolve

[–] [email protected] 125 points 2 days ago (2 children)

Looks like it's not an issue fortunately.

Aida said the new material is as strong as petroleum-based plastics but breaks down into its original components when exposed to salt. Those components can then be further processed by naturally occurring bacteria, thereby avoiding generating microplastics that can harm aquatic life and enter the food chain.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 days ago (1 children)

So using this for frozen foods, or takeaway containers isn’t advised. Those are basically all sodium.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 day ago

The pace at which a takeaway container degrades from the salty food may be more than slow enough for it to not matter for that use case — especially if the container uses a coating.

[–] [email protected] 29 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Yeah I reacted to the title and then read the article and edited lol

[–] [email protected] 21 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Given the username, the immediate emotional reaction when expecting damage to ocean life is understandable

[–] [email protected] 15 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Unironically, I am passionate about marine environmentalism lol

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 days ago

Same here buddy! I try to limit plastic use as much as possible, or reuse any plastic items I already have as much as I can to reduce consumption