Cassava based: new plastic bags that dissolve in water

The data is already known.Every year, about eight tons of plastics reach the oceans and, at least for the next 500 years, will continue there, since their chemical structure makes this material incredibly durable.However, not everything that shines is gold and not all plastic is condemned to be a pollutant agent on earth.In fact, few know that plastic is not necessarily the product derived from the oil we all know, but that there are even biobasados and biodegradable, as evidenced by the recently announced hydrosolble and non -toxic plastic bag that they developed in the Faculty of Engineering of the Engineering of the Engineering of the Engineering of the Engineering of the University of the Andes.

While the development of these materials is good news to stop the accelerated pollution rhythm of oil -derived plastics, the problem is not the material they are made from the products, but the lack of appropriate management of their waste.“Somehow what we deliver today as a product and as a solution is a way to relieve the problem of bad final disposition.But we are not going to solve the problems if a poor disposition of waste persists, ”explains Professor Jorge Medina, Doctor Industrial Engineer and Mechanical Engineer and one of the heads after the project.

"Every polymer that is transformed through a thermomechanical action to mold it, that is a plastic, regardless of the nature of it," says Medina.So, when we talk about plastic, you have to overcome the idea of referring only to materials such as PET, polyethylene and other conventional polymers derived from oil and that we see daily in the packaging and containers and also with messages such as “This is notPlastic¨ When it comes to biopolymers such as PLA or thermoplastic starches.

The Project of the Materials and Manufacturing Group of the Mechanical Engineering and Food Engineering departments of the University of Los Andes, led by Medina, has managed to convert cassava into raw material to be transformed, for now, into plastic bags thatThey dissolve in the water.

Este proyecto arrancó hace una década, cuando la compañía A&P de Colombia se acercó a Jorge Medina y al entonces profesor Orlando Porras, también de los Andes. A&P quería desarrollar semilleros biodegradables, una de sus líneas de producción, pero, cuenta Medina, “esa idea terminó derivando en poder conocer el material, el almidón termoplástico de yuca, sus características como producto y como material para ser procesado”.Universidad and State Synergy (Colciencias) gave a seed for innovation and entrepreneurship.

From this association the company Ecobioplast was founded, which is already producing these bags in industrial scale with conventional equipment and of which Porras is a technical manager.“Ecobioplast has an installed capacity of the order of 20 tons per month and that, in terms of what it means in the country, is just a seed, because the demand for plastics in Colombia is close to 1.3 million tons per year, of which about half are destined for packaging ”.

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Therefore, for the researcher, part of the success of these new innovations is that industry, consumers and all those involved in their value and consumption chain understand it."If I think that I am going to receive exactly the same bag that I have every day, but that magically shot wherever I want and the problem will disappear, that is very comfortable but does not fit reality".The new product has appearance, textures, friction and particular mechanical properties but that conform to flexible packaging requirements.

It is important that the packaging indicates the most appropriate way of disposition and if it is biodegradable, under what conditions the compostability is ensured."There is competition that is not legitimate.I'm going to explain.There are some offers of some products that are biopolymers without a doubt, but for this material to degrade, it needs special conditions.The PL is a biodegradable biopolymer, but it needs among others, a temperature between 60 and 70 degrees Celsius so that this process is supposed.This means that the composting process has to be in an industrial plant: the product residue has to be collected, separate and take to a composting plant ”.

So, from the point of view of management, these materials need the same type of treatment as conventional plastic to this type of biopolymers.In one case, to be taken to recycling plants and, on the other, composting circuits.

Even so, Medina believes that the innovation developed is only a first step within what is coming in the coming years with greater alternatives of products that stimulate bioeconomy, as pointed out by the mission of wise recently.There must be a change in favor of environmental awareness derived from the production of plastics with new materials."Finally, oil is a resource that will be exhausted at some point and we also need.

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