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Bacteria Make Styrofoam Earth-Friendly
"PHA is a 100 percent biodegradable plastic that can be thrown on your compost heap. Bacteria in the compost heap use the plastic as food to grow, so there is no damage to the environment. You can't get greener than that for a plastic"
- Kevin O'Connor, head of the bioplastic research group at University College Dublin in Ireland
Dublin, Ireland - Bacteria that converts Styrofoam into Earth-friendly plastic could lead to a new kind of biodegradable plastic that breaks down into the soil.
Scientists have used microorganisms to break down the kinds of chemical products found in Styrofoam, but no one has been able to create a useful plastic byproduct, commented Mannfred Zinn, a research group leader at EMPA, the materials science and technology lab that is part of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology.