degradable

The machinery at municipal recycling facilities often gets jammed up with the adhesives which are utilized on items such as jar labels and cardboard boxes. That may cease to be the case in the not-too-distant future, however, thanks to a new degradable adhesive.Along with gumming up the works at recycling plants, adhesive waste can also clog the facilities' water systems and even make its way into what end up being lower-quality recycled materials. And while other degradable adhesives do already exist, most of them lack…

Researchers have developed a method to make plastics more degradable in natural environments, with the use of Ultraviolet (UV) light. According to scientists at the Centre for Sustainable and Circular Technology (CSCT) of the University of Bath, the degradability of a polymer used in the material used to create disposable plastic items can be changed by modifying it composition. The plastic could be degraded by up to 40 percent within six hours of UV light exposure, according to the researchers.Currently, a material…