Its specifically sensitive to salt, so you can use it for anything with little or no salt without issue. Also it would be perfect for basically all packaging applications that dont involve food but do require an airtight seal. So you could probably replace the majority of all single use plastic packaging/containers with it.
Comment on Scientists in Japan develop plastic that dissolves in seawater within hours
hperrin@lemmy.ca 2 weeks ago
You see the thing is, the point of plastic is that it doesn’t dissolve easily. I can see this having some niche applications, but this won’t be replacing most plastics any time soon.
unexposedhazard@discuss.tchncs.de 2 weeks ago
Deceptichum@quokk.au 2 weeks ago
Well let’s stop putting plastic into seawater and we won’t have to worry about our it dissolving.
floofloof@lemmy.ca 2 weeks ago
Ah but imagine the eager faces of Logitech’s execs when they realize they could make their mice dissolve under your fingers and offer a subscription for replacements.
thebestaquaman@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
To be fair, this was originally the point of plastic. The primary point of plastic today is that it is an extremely cheap material that you can mould into pretty much any shape.
Need a bag to carry stuff? Plastic.
Packaging for toothpicks? Plastic.
Packaging for clothes? Plastic.
Fake plant. Plastic.
Part of the problem is that we’re using a wonder-material that lasts forever (plastic) for a bunch of mundane shit where we don’t need it, because that wonder-material turns out to be the cheapest material around as well.
hperrin@lemmy.ca 2 weeks ago
Yeah, fair enough. That’s a great point. I will update my opinion of this advancement.