Forscher entwickelten „Plantymere“: Kunststoffe, die nachhaltig aus pflanzlichen Proteinen hergestellt werden und in der Umwelt auf natürliche Weise abgebaut werden
https://iop.uva.nl/content/news/2026/07/silk-inspired-plantymers-as-a-biodegradable-plastic.html
19 Kommentare
> Enter plantymers, made from plant proteins that are spun or sheared into fibres or sheets. The production of plantymers is similar to how spiders produce silk fibres. Because plantymers are composed of natural proteins, they are biodegradable. This stands in contrast to traditional plastics which are composed of intertwined non-biodegradable hydrocarbon chains
> In principle, plantymers can be made from different plant proteins. For this first demonstration, the research team used the corn protein zein. In its pure form, zein is clear, odourless, tasteless, water-insoluble and edible, and it already has a variety of industrial and food uses.
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>The key to making a plantymer is finding the right way to dissolve the proteins and prepare them for being made into a fibre or film. Zein doesn’t dissolve in water, so the research team first dissolved it in a solution of 80% ethanol. Once the protein was dissolved, they added extra water to the mixture until the solution was only around 47% ethanol.
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>Because the zein remains water-repellent, it forms protein-rich droplets within the liquid. This protein-rich liquid is called the ‘coacervate phase’, and it can be separated from the water-rich solvent. The coacervate liquids can then be spun or sheared into a plastic-like fibre of film.
[Silk-Inspired Design and Manufacturing of Robust Plantymers | Nature Communications](https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-026-72645-9)
Can it be melted? This would be really good for 3D printing.
Might be great for some applications where the longevity of the product isn’t a big deal. But for many cases, the whole reason we use plastic is because it doesn’t break down.
Wake me up when the headline includes something like „scalable“ or „commercially viable.“
You can eat it, Doozers did it first. https://muppet.fandom.com/wiki/Doozers
People are dumb and don’t care until unavoidably inconvenienced. Most of it is liquid diabetes and a waste of water used to produce it. I am speaking hypothetically anyway not that I wouldn’t also support certain forms of single use plastic bans and other things to sway people away from it. Its particularly amusing watching bandwagon about data centers because of the water issue but entirely ignore stuff like this.
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It doesn’t matter.
The problem with plastics is not and has never been that we can’t make an alternative.
The problem is that the materials used to make plastic are a waste product of bringing up natural gas. The producers of natural gas have a ton of it and they have to get rid of. They can give it away for free and it’s still a better outcome for them than having to pay to dispose of it.
We will have fossil fuel based plastic for as long as we have natural gas.
we can’t stop making plastics. We can’t pump oil unless we get rid of ethylene. Ethylene makes plastics. We have to make plastic as long as we pump oil.
We don’t need an alternative to plastics we need an alternative use for ethylene or an better energy source than oil
It could be free and 100 times better than plastic. It still wouldn’t replace plastic. We can already make plastic way better than it is. But we don’t because the real objective is to use up plastics and produce more. That’s why we have so much single use plastic even though nobody wants it at all.
Is this like the soy plastic that was used in cars and attracted rodent that enjoyed the flavor of wire harness coatings?
Can’t wait for DuPont to purchase this patent and bury it
I’m pretty sure pla which any 3D printer owner will be familiar with is made out of plant starches
Let me guess: expensive, inconvenient, and more harmful to the environment than regular plastic (like wrapping paper, which everyone considers very eco-friendly)?
This is the kind of innovation we need to be pouring funding into. It tackles the end-of-life problem head-on without just swapping one environmental cost for another (like land use). The real test will be scaling production without insane costs and ensuring those plant proteins are sourced sustainably. Cautiously optimistic.
Cool, and how much does (the energy for it) cost?
Cuz if it’s more than 0 the capitalists prolly gonna stick with plastic.
Ah Big Oil will never let this happen, they’ll lose money
If it’s not cheaper than producing plastic from crude, it’s never getting off the ground.
The only way this becomes cheaper than crude is if governments stop subsidizing oil extraction.
If plantymers break down in the environment, doesn’t that mean it breaks down *anywhere*?
The whole benefit of classic plastic is that once it’s made it lasts a long time. In your home, office, factory, oil rig, international space station, wherever.
Can’t wait to never hear from this again