Somali Islamist terror group Al-Shabaab (whose methods and aims are essentially the same as IS) ....
..... have been flexing their green credentials in the province of Shabelle.
Their 'governor' of the region, Mohamad Abu Abdalla pronounced in July 2018, that it was illegal to distribute single use plastic bags. Now they have decided that it is now a punishable offence to cut down the native tree species .... its not specified what the Sharia punishment for this was determined to be, but one suspects that no one would want to find out first hand.
The Plastic Planet
It appears a salvation from the scourge of plastic bags and plastic packages is at hand .... an edible plastic has been created by Dr Dmytro Bidyuk and his colleagues, at the National Agrarian University in Sumy in north-eastern Ukraine.
They have moulded cups, drinking straws and bags from seaweed, and also from a starch derived from red algae, and so the future for fish and our food chain looks a whole lot brighter. Now if only we can get plastic manufacturers to adopt it quickly enough to do some good.
Oh hold on, a problem "The main advantage of this cup is that it completely decomposes in 21 days and the bag, disintegrates in the earth in just over a week." .... so is that the shelf life of the containers out of ground?
Well that's not answered, but the cups can be frozen or used to bake cupcakes. I guess, we need a few field trials before manufacture millions of products that degrade after a week in the air.
But if this doesn't work, well there's always moths .....
Moth Matters
Yes moths, as scientists have found that the saliva or guts of Waxworm, the larvae of a moth commonly found in Beehives, is capable of disintegrating the molecular bonds that holds plastic together. Two species of waxworm (Galleria mellonella and Plodia interpunctella ) have been observed eating polythene plastic.
They manage this at a 'uniquely fast rate' .... maybe, just maybe, we have stumbled across the possible answer to the global plastic waste problem. Of course the same chemical property that could tackle plastic waste, could also do a lot of damage to plastic pipes and wiring, so it might be a double edged sword ... but we probably need to risk it.
 |
| Interesting Trees In Somalia .... Yes Album Covers Anyone? |
..... have been flexing their green credentials in the province of Shabelle.
Their 'governor' of the region, Mohamad Abu Abdalla pronounced in July 2018, that it was illegal to distribute single use plastic bags. Now they have decided that it is now a punishable offence to cut down the native tree species .... its not specified what the Sharia punishment for this was determined to be, but one suspects that no one would want to find out first hand.
The Plastic Planet
It appears a salvation from the scourge of plastic bags and plastic packages is at hand .... an edible plastic has been created by Dr Dmytro Bidyuk and his colleagues, at the National Agrarian University in Sumy in north-eastern Ukraine.
 |
| Bio-Degradable Plastic Food Bags .... The Future? |
They have moulded cups, drinking straws and bags from seaweed, and also from a starch derived from red algae, and so the future for fish and our food chain looks a whole lot brighter. Now if only we can get plastic manufacturers to adopt it quickly enough to do some good.
Oh hold on, a problem "The main advantage of this cup is that it completely decomposes in 21 days and the bag, disintegrates in the earth in just over a week." .... so is that the shelf life of the containers out of ground?
Well that's not answered, but the cups can be frozen or used to bake cupcakes. I guess, we need a few field trials before manufacture millions of products that degrade after a week in the air.
But if this doesn't work, well there's always moths .....
Moth Matters
Yes moths, as scientists have found that the saliva or guts of Waxworm, the larvae of a moth commonly found in Beehives, is capable of disintegrating the molecular bonds that holds plastic together. Two species of waxworm (Galleria mellonella and Plodia interpunctella ) have been observed eating polythene plastic.
 |
| Galleria Mellonella - Saviour Of The Planet? |
They manage this at a 'uniquely fast rate' .... maybe, just maybe, we have stumbled across the possible answer to the global plastic waste problem. Of course the same chemical property that could tackle plastic waste, could also do a lot of damage to plastic pipes and wiring, so it might be a double edged sword ... but we probably need to risk it.
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