Plastics have posed substantial environmental and human health risks, therefore their design, manufacturing and disposal should incorporate sustainability considerations. Now a study reports success in developing hydroplastics from renewable cellulosic biomass that can be shaped in water.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Relevant articles
Open Access articles citing this article.
-
A recyclable polyester library from reversible alternating copolymerization of aldehyde and cyclic anhydride
Nature Communications Open Access 05 September 2023
-
Highly reinforced and degradable lignocellulose biocomposites by polymerization of new polyester oligomers
Nature Communications Open Access 27 September 2022
Access options
Access Nature and 54 other Nature Portfolio journals
Get Nature+, our best-value online-access subscription
$29.99 / 30 days
cancel any time
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 12 digital issues and online access to articles
$119.00 per year
only $9.92 per issue
Buy this article
- Purchase on SpringerLink
- Instant access to full article PDF
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
References
Production of Plastics Worldwide from 1950 to 2019 (in Million Metric Tons) (Statista, 2020); https://www.statista.com/statistics/282732/global-production-of-plastics-since-1950/
Schneiderman, D. K. & Hillmyer, M. A. Macromolecules 50, 3733–3749 (2017).
Häußler, M., Eck, M., Rothauer, D. & Mecking, S. Nature 590, 423–427 (2021).
Wang, Z., Ganewatta, M. S. & Tang, C. Polym. Sci. 101, 101197 (2020).
Bandwidth Study on Energy Use and Potential Energy Savings Opportunities in U.S. Plastics and Rubber Manufacturing Report No. DOE/EE-1573 (US DOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, 2017).
Baird, D. G. & Collias, D. I. Polymer Processing: Principles and Design (John Wiley & Sons, 2014).
Wang, J., Emmerich, L., Wu, J., Vana, P. & Zhang, K. Nat. Sustain. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-021-00743-1 (2021).
Roy, D., Semsarilar, M., Guthrie, J. T. & Perrier, S. Chem. Soc. Rev. 38, 2046–2064 (2009).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Competing interests
The authors declare no competing interests.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Yuan, L., Buzoglu Kurnaz, L. & Tang, C. Alternative plastics. Nat Sustain 4, 837–838 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-021-00750-2
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-021-00750-2
This article is cited by
-
A recyclable polyester library from reversible alternating copolymerization of aldehyde and cyclic anhydride
Nature Communications (2023)
-
Highly reinforced and degradable lignocellulose biocomposites by polymerization of new polyester oligomers
Nature Communications (2022)