Chilean company Solubag has introduced a new water-soluble plastic bag as part of the fight to reduce plastic pollution in oceans around the world.
A State Of Emergency
Plastic accumulating in the world's oceans has become a major policy issue for governments, with scientists warning of its effect on the food chain. Recently, the European Commission proposed banning single-use plastics such as cotton buds and plastic straws, putting the burden of cleaning up waste on manufacturers in an effort to reduce marine litter.
In retail, many companies have already started to implement new environmentally friendly policies at every stage, such as Eroski introducing alternatives to plastic bags, Rewe Group banning plastic straws in some chains, or Intermarché replacing plastic cotton swabs with biodegradable versions.
According to a United Nations report, 500 billion plastic bags are distributed each year, with an estimated 69% of them ending up in landfills, oceans or in sewer systems.
A New Solution?
Enter a new kind of plastic bag, co-designed by Chilean company SoluBag and Chinese firm Polye Materials. Its main innovation is that it dissolves in water, and doesn't pollute water sources while doing so. This is thanks to a new chemical composition. While most plastic is petroleum-based, this new kind of bag combines hydrogen, carbon and a synthetic polymer, PVA.
Speaking about the new product at a conference in the capital of Santiago, Roberto Astete, CEO of SoluBag told the Agence France-Presse, "The major difference between traditional plastic and ours is that the former will remain in oceans for the next 150 to 500 years while ours will only last 5 minutes. We control the lifecycle of this new product."
Highlighting the ease of recycling for the new product he added, "Now you can recycle plastic bags in a saucepan or a washing machine".
© 2018 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Matthieu Chassain. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: European Supermarket Magazine.
