A unique kind of non-plastic bag was brought to the streets of Miami for the ProChile Innovative Summit. The completely biodegradable bag became the winner of Latin America’s innovation award. The product was produced by Patricio Cabezas, a former engineer at a major Chilean plastic manufacturing plant. He told EFE, “First I helped create the problem and now I’m solving it.”
What’s special about this bag? It dissolves in water, and is edible! It is made of an ‘innocuous’ or non-toxic material – polyvinyl alcohol – which is the same stuff used for pharmaceutical capsules. After only 3 minutes of being submerged in water, the bag is gone. Roberto Astete and Cristian Olivares, two researchers from Chile, are the masterminds behind the making of this new biodegradable non-plastic bag. “Our product comes from a limestone that does not hurt the environment,” explains Astete. “What remains in the water is carbon has no effect on the human body.”
While a normal plastic bag takes hundreds of years to disappear, this one takes only minutes! Cabezas even demonstrated how fast, and safe, his product is during his presentation in Miami. He allowed the audience to watch the bag dissolve, then promptly pour the water into a glass and drank it. “It’s like making bread,” says Astete. “To make bread you need flour and other ingredients. Our flour is polyvinyl alcohol and other elements approved by the FDA [US Food and Drug Administration], that have allowed us to create a prime material to make different products.”
And, as a bonus advantage, these bags protect against asphyxia, a cause of childhood accidents in the home since they’ll dissolve when they come into contact with a person’s tongue or tears.
In Chile, Cabezas partnered with Solubag and together they have produced a bag with the same capabilities of its polyethylene counterpart and have already successfully been incorporated into major chain shopping centers in Chile with potential contracts pending in Panama, Mexico, Australia, and parts of Europe. The makers of this bag hope to give people a way to minimize their damage to the environment by offering a product that can be destroyed when a person chooses.
What about rain and humidity? Solubag also has a hot water version of their bag that doesn’t break down in cold water, but rapidly breaks down in hot water of 85°C (185°F) or higher, and is still safe to drink if you really want to. If the hot water version doesn’t come into contact with hot water and instead gets thrown out, it’ll still fully break down within 180 days. The hot water version can be seen in the video below.
The bags don’t require special machinery to create either, they are created with existing machinery for flexible plastic films so companies that create plastic bags can easily make the switch. The bags are said to be as strong, or stronger, than regular single-use plastic bags and can be customized for robustness and design. The only design limitation is that currently, only pastel colors are available, which are environmentally friend. Richer colors are in development.
Solubag can already supply environmentally-friendly disposable clothing, garbage bags, disposable seat covers, gloves, and overalls. It also hopes to create new products such as toothbrushes, crates, food containers and disposable dishes.
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