BRIGHTON, England – The volume of plastic waste shows the inefficiency of the global plastics industry. Plastic lasts a long time, but it has low recycling and reuse rates. About 40% of plastic packaging has only a single-use and fails to biodegrade.
Plastic waste as a result of ongoing the pandemic is predicted to rise dramatically due to increased single-use medical devices and personal protective equipment (PPE), plus increases related to the grocery industry–single-use plastic grocery bags, and plastic food packaging concerns over limiting the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
The impact of plastics on the environment has become an increasingly concerning problem as TWH has previously reported the effect of single-use plastics in the environment. Environmentally-oriented Pagans like biochemist and animist, Dr. Felicity Grove have previously commented on the problems with recycling and how efforts too often fall short of expectations.
Finding a way to balance our increased plastic use in a way that is far less damaging to the environment will require innovation. In this article, the TWH reports on the continuing development of a new type of biodegradable plastic.
In 2019, Lucy Hughes from the University of Sussex received the international James Dyson Award for her graduation project that utilized a combination of fish scales, skin, and red algae to create a new type of plastic. Fish scales and skin that are usually treated as waste products from fish processing plants can be repurposed to make a type of flexible and completely biodegradable plastic.
Fish Scales – Image credit: Rajesh dangi – CC BY 2.5
Marina Tex, a plastic made from fish waste
A 23-year old University of Sussex student, Lucy Hughes, has developed a new biodegradable plastic. Composed of commercial fish processing waste products, Hughes’ new plastic will biodegrade within four to six weeks, and occur without chemical treatment. Nor will it release toxins into the environment. Hughes has named this new plastic Marina Tex. It would mostly be used for single-use plastic bags.
Marina Tex as a “Circular Economy” innovation has earned it a spot in the top 20 contenders for the Green Alley Award, which was open for public voting to select one of the six finalists, which are due to be announced soon. A Circular Economy is defined by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation as “a framework for an economy that is restorative and regenerative by design.”
The Landbell Group which started out as a waste disposal company, but has since shifted its focus to becoming “a global service provider for environmental and chemical compliance” created the Green Alley Award in 2014. The purpose of the award is to encourage start-up businesses that focus on sustainability, prioritizing the efficient use of resources, and drastically reduce the creation of waste.
Finding a use for waste products
The Smithsonian Magazine reported on Hughes winning the Dyson Award and how she developed Marina Tex. Hughes likes to work with things that people throw away, saying, “There’s value in waste, and we should be looking towards waste products rather than virgin materials if we could.”
According to the website, E3S2, in the UK alone, fish processing plants produce 172,000 tons of fish waste per year.
In contrast, many indigenous peoples use every part of an animal they hunt and kill. They would tend to see wasting parts of a hunted animal as disrespecting its spirit.
The “advanced” industrial world produces a large amount of waste, trash, and pollution. “Primitive” indigenous societies had much higher levels of efficiency.
How Hughes developed Marina Tex
According to the Smithsonian, Hughes arranged to visit a fish processing plant on England’s southern coast. That visit left her a bit smelly. She said, “I had to wash even my shoes.”
Smelly, yet she felt inspired to continue development. In an interview on the green and sustainability website, Becco, Hughes reassured people that the product, Marina Tex, has no fish odor.
Fish scales and skin could produce a plastic product. Finding a binding agent proved more difficult. Eventually, she found that red algae would work.
Hughes reported that she made Marina Tex in her kitchen on the Becco. She used temps less than 100o C. Marina Tex is translucent. That translucency makes it ideal for wrapping items for sale. She sees the first use of Marina Tex as shopping or bakery bags.
China Daily described her feelings when she touched the skin and scales. She said, “When I felt the skins and the scales in my hands, I could see that there was potential locked up in it. It was so flexible, yet pliable and strong.”
Hughes does not hate plastic
Hughes has no hostility towards plastics in general. “It’s not necessarily plastic that’s the problem,” she continued, “It’s our overuse of, for example, single-use plastics that might be used for only 10 to 15 seconds before we then have to throw that away.”
In the interview on the Becco, Hughes said, “I think it’s important to say that plastic isn’t a bad material. It’s actually amazing, and it’s life-changing — even life-saving in some cases. I don’t want there to be this kind of hate toward plastic; the pressure should be focused towards how it’s used and why it’s used in those situations. … The product doesn’t end when the consumer is finished with it; it ends when it’s disposed of.”
“Even if we recycle, we should keep in mind that the different types of plastic can be recycled a different amount of times. Some of them can only be recycled one other time, others six or seven times.” Hughes continued in the interview on the Becco, “This information hasn’t been conveyed to many people, it’s something that not many people know — but it means that if we want to use plastic, we need to be using those types of plastic that can be recycled multiple times.”
The Dyson Award
Hughes winning the 2019 James Dyson Award, which is presented for developing a “product that solves a problem with ingenuity” and came with £30,000 (nearly $39,000) prize money, has allowed her to continue the development of the plastic and brought more interest from groups like Landbell and the World Economic Forum.
The James Dyson Foundation listed the unique qualities of Marina Tex. First, Marina Tex is fully biodegradable in home composts. It does not leach toxins into the environment as it degrades. Second, it utilizes waste material. Transforming waste into something valuable reduces stress on resources. It also diverts material from landfills. Third, it has a higher tensile strength than low-density polyethylene (LDPE), commonly used to produce bags. Marina Tex has the potential to replace LDPE.
In 2019 Sir James Dyson, Founder said of Marina Tex, “The James Dyson Award received some thought-provoking ideas this year – and more female entrants than ever – making the judging very difficult. Ultimately, we decided to pick the idea the world could least do without. Marina Tex elegantly solves two problems: the ubiquity of single-use plastic and fish waste.”
What’s next for Marina Tex
As a new product, Marina Tex will require a new manufacturing infrastructure. The challenge now will be enticing those in manufacturing to consider producing it on a large enough scale, though Hughes’ low temperature and low-tech approach may make it even more appealing.
Marina Tex has the potential to harness a resource that has previously been viewed as waste, and transform it into a viable product that could drastically reduce single-use plastic. What began as a fish, is may now be transformed into a variety of products that may potentially return to the sea as “fish food” rather than problematic plastic debris, a shining example of circularity.
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