Today's KNOWLEDGE Share : Biodegradability is the wrong problem to solve

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Today's KNOWLEDGE Share

Stop trying to make plastics disappear.


Academia is currently jumping through every imaginable technical hoop to make biodegradable plastics work.



New catalysts. Fancy polyesters. Enzyme friendly additives. Microbial magic.


But here’s the uncomfortable truth 👇


Biodegradability is the wrong problem to solve.


⚠️ Medical plastics rarely end up in nature they are incinerated for safety.

⚠️ When they do degrade, they release CO₂ and methane – not exactly good for the climate.

⚠️ They suffer from poor shelf life and stability, making them unfit for most uses in medtech.

⚠️ plastic shouldn't need to biodegrade, if they end up in the environment waste management failed.


So we spend years of research just to make materials that…

👉 don't have the performance

👉 can’t be recycled currently

👉 and don’t even solve the environmental problem.


If we truly want impact, the solutions are clear:

♻️ Recycling-compatible design and

🌱 bio-based drop-in polymers with identical performance.


Let’s stop chasing decomposition and start engineering circularity.

👉 Let’s talk about how to make that shift in MedTech.


source : Lucas R. Pianegonda


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