Scientists at the CSIR-National Institute for Interdisciplinary Science and Technology (NIIST), Thiruvananthapuram, have developed a bottle made from bio-based materials that could help reduce plastic pollution. According to the institute, the bottle can biodegrade in about six months under natural conditions on land.<\/p>\n
The bottle is made from biodegradable polymers and plant-derived materials. Unlike conventional plastic bottles, which can persist in the environment for a long time, the new bottle is designed to biodegrade and can also be composted.<\/p>\n
The bottle could be used to package drinking water, juices, milk, plant-based beverages, cooking oils, personal care products, household cleaning liquids and herbal products.<\/p>\n
The scientists have used renewable resources such as corn, sugarcane, cassava and sugar beet to develop the technology. The use of these plant-based materials could also help farmers and businesses explore new ways to utilise agricultural produce.<\/p>\n
Another key feature is that manufacturers may be able to produce these bottles using their existing PET bottle-making machines, with only minor modifications. PET, or polyethylene terephthalate, is a type of plastic commonly used to manufacture water and soft-drink bottles.<\/p>\n
Dr C Anandharamakrishnan, Director of CSIR-NIIST, said that developing sustainable packaging materials was an important step towards tackling plastic pollution and moving towards a system in which resources are reused and waste is minimised.<\/p>\n
The project was launched about two years ago under CSIR’s Sustainable Packaging Mission. The technology is now ready for transfer to manufacturers. CSIR-NIIST plans to offer licences to micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) on a non-exclusive basis, allowing multiple companies to use the technology.<\/p>\n
The initiative could help small businesses, start-ups and large manufacturers explore alternatives to conventional plastic bottles.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Scientists at the CSIR-National Institute for Interdisciplinary Science and Technology (NIIST), Thiruvananthapuram, have developed a bottle made from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":945520,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[64,63,75,512720,128],"class_list":["post-945519","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-environment","tag-plant-based-bottles","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/945519","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=945519"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/945519\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/945520"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=945519"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=945519"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=945519"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}