Plastic litter is unsightly and appears never to rot away. Chemists were
pressed to do something about it by making polymers that will decompose and by
redesigning well-known ones so that they self-destruct. But is this really the
answer?
THE CHEMICAL giant ICI produces what appears to be the perfect plastic.
Bacteria make it from sugar, and once we have finished with it, other bacteria
in the soil digest it back to carbon dioxide. This remarkable plastic is
called polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB), and is tradenamed Biopol by ICI. It has
recently won environmental awards in the US and Germany. Wella, the…
