Scientists make plastic more degradable under UV light

This new technology will help make plastics more degradable in the environment at the end of their life (Credit: oilslo). Scientists at Bath found that incorporating sugar units into polymers makes them more degradable when exposed to UV light. Many plastics that are labelled as biodegradable are only compostable under industrial conditions, but scientists at the University of Bath have now found a way to make plastics break down using only UV light. As a result of increasing public concern over plastic waste, PLA (Poly(lactic acid)), created using lactic acid from the fermentation of sugars, is now widely used as a renewable, sustainable alternative to plastics derived from crude oil products - used in everything from disposable cups and teabags to 3D printing and packaging. It is often labelled as biodegradable, however it has limited degradability in natural environments, for example in soil or in seawater, and it only degrades under industrial composting conditions of high temperatures and humidity - not achievable in domestic compost heaps. Now scientists at the Centre for Sustainable and Circular Technologies (CSCT) at the University of Bath have developed a way that could make these plastics more degradable in the natural environment. The team found that they can tweak the degradability of the plastic by incorporating different amounts of sugar molecules into the polymer.