By: Looi Sue-Chern

GEORGE TOWN, MALAYSIA - Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) has found a way to make durable and degradable plastic.

With the EnviroPLAST degradable plastic, inventors Professor Hanafi Ismail from USM's Materials and Mineral Resources Engineering School, and doctorate student Sam Sung Ting, are confident that there will not be any need to impose bans on plastics.

"EnviroPLAST is a degradable plastic that is produced by incorporating natural-based polymer and DegraCHEM, our own synthesised chemical.

"This special chemical attacks the polymer strands in the plastic, making the material easier to degrade," Hanafi said yesterday.

He said EnviroPLAST, after six months of weather exposure and soil burial tests, showed reductions in tensile strength by 70 per cent and over 30 per cent respectively, and microbes penetrating its surface -- indications that the material had begun degrading, unlike normal non-degradable plastic.

"We compared the EnviroPLAST in the form of a bag with a degradable plastic bag used by a hypermarket, but ours did not 'disintegrate' in days like the latter.

"If it degrades before you can reuse it, it defeats the purpose. We want people to use and reuse their plastic bags for as long as possible."

Hanafi said the EnviroPLAST, which can be processed into various types of plastic products was the answer to environmental problems caused by non-degradable plastic materials made of petroleum-derived polymers like polyethylene, polypropylene, polystyrene and polyvinyl cloride.

"The normal plastic could take 100 years to degrade unless you burn it while the EnviroPLAST, which is compatible with existing commercial plastic products, will degrade in six months to a year.

"This green invention is also less expensive at RM5 per kilogramme, compared to polyethylene that is sold at RM6.50 (SGD2.67) per kilogramme."

Hanafi said the five-year research to produce the EnviroPLAST followed the American Society of Testing Materials' standards and that further research would be conducted in order to improve the material.

--NST