A new type of plastic-eating micro-organisms has been discovered which has the ability to endure extreme conditions!

A new type of plastic-eating micro-organisms has been discovered which has the ability to endure extreme conditions!

Welcome to our everyday article on biodegradable coffee capsules. You can get a lot of interesting facts, so we really hope. Other meaningful materials on sustainable coffee capsules are for instance from leading media publishers, or Moving Beans. Do read our related blog on compostable Nespresso-compatible pods.

A new strain of bacteria has been determined which is able to stand up to severe conditions, such as acidic environments or high temperatures, and is able to "consume" plastic. This brand-new strain of micro-organisms is able to feed on hazardous plastic and, rather uncommonly, uses it as food to power the entire process.

Found rather accidentally at a waste-site where plastic had actually been dumped, the microbes is the first that is known to attack polyurethane. When broken down, this rather persistent form of plastic releases extremely hazardous and carcinogenic chemicals. The toxicity is so strong that it would kill most microorganisms. But not this one!

"These findings represent a crucial step in having the ability to reuse hard-to-recycle polyurethane items," stated Hermann Heipieper, at the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research-UFZ in Leipzig, Germany, who is one of the research study team. He stated it might be 10 years before the bacteria could be used at a big scale and that in the meantime it was vital to reduce making use of plastic that is tough to recycle and to cut the quantity of plastic in the environment.

Video: Sustainable and Nespresso-compatible Pods by Moving Beans.

More than 8bn tonnes of plastic have been produced since the 1950s, embodied in items such as nappies, kitchen area sponges, sports shoes, and so on. Almost all of it has ended in landfills or oceans due to the fact that it is too tough to recycle. Scientists state it threatens a "near irreversible contamination of the natural environment".

Having found an option to the problem is terrific. However we are still 10 years from a production-ready capability to handle such quantities of plastic at scale. In the meantime, Moving Beans offers a feasible alternative by using eco-friendly and compostable coffee pods-- all whilst not compromising on the quality of the coffee.

The plastic (and aluminium) waste produced from coffee pods is massive! During the time it took you to read this short article, more than 100,000 coffee pods were thrown into land fills. There is hence a seriousness in delivering a more sustainable solution which replaces the conventional plastic and aluminium Nespresso coffee pods by more sustainable and ideally compostable coffee pods.

A lot of research study efforts are under way worldwide to address this issue. The plastic-eating microorganisms are only one part of the option. We merely need more sustainable product packaging products and a more sustainable supply chain. It will still take years for the end-to-end procedure to be sustainable, however we now begin to see "the light at the end of the tunnel".

We at Moving Beans are a market challenger that has provided compostable coffee capsules for a very long time, with more info under Moving Beans. Or go through a related blog on Nespresso-compatible pods. We were the first to deliver sustainable coffee pods.

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