PieFedScientists Create Durable Biodegradable Bamboo Plastic That’s Stronger Than Petroleum-Based Materials | Happy Eco News
Briar Crawford
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Chinese researchers created biodegradable bamboo plastic with 110 MPa tensile strength that decomposes in soil within 50 days. Published in Nature Communications (October 2025), the material outperforms petroleum-based plastics in terms of strength and stability, while maintaining 90% of its original strength after recycling. This makes it a renewable and recyclable alternative for industrial use.
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CubitOomI would personally prefer sourcing actually natural materials (bamboo, rubber, etc.) that are not petroleum based and figuring out ways to make products that are a lot less likely to poison ourselves and our environment more affordable.
That’s great! Can’t wait to never hear of it again!
There were a lot of adjectives used, but I didn’t see “cheaper to produce” or “more profitable” so it will be sold in niche markets and then forgotten.
Probably will just disappear.
Would be great for single year plastic items/packaging.
For some reason the article says it decomposes naturaly in 50 days and then goes on to list the automotive industry as a use. Aren’t cars supposed to last longer than 50 days outside?
If you take the seat out of your car and bury it in soil, it will start to decompose. Keeping the plastic out of ideal decomposition conditions will make it last longer.
Maybe if some of it is made of cotton (unlikely usually synthetic) or leather. Even then that will take much longer than that to decompose.
For the automotive industry, I think that they mean Interior parts that aren’t exposed to the weather.
__反いじめ戦隊Durable Biodegradable […]Stronger
🤔
massive_bereavementBones are durable, biodegradable and rather strong.
And have half-lives of 30-100years depending the biodiversity of the soil.😆
Don’t worry, in my experience biodegradable usually means under very specific circumstances which are not easily met. Even if, like in this case, it is presented as “just bury it for 50 days and it’s gone”. It’s still a great discovery if the other claims are true though.
I’d prefer the scientific terms they mean, instead of all these laymen contradictions. I’m just pointing them out, to state the blatant.
Well yeah. If it was readily biodegradable under normal conditions then it would biodegrade on the shelf or while in use. We already have materials like that: fruit peels.
Sure, but I was referring to stuff like biodegradable tea bags or those nespresso cups that are only degrable under high temperature and long residence times, so they’ll stay plastic forever in the composter.
its already being used in toilet paper, bandaids, cups,,,etc. its just more expensive than regular paper.
Researchers confirmed complete decomposition after burying samples in soil for under two months.
That’s great compared to the compostable (in an industrial composter) ones out now. I wonder if there are specific conditions it needs for it or not.
This actually sounds great, if the solvents are widely available and have as low footprint as the material itself (bamboo).
Production involves two eco-friendly steps. Deep eutectic solvents break apart bamboo’s hydrogen-bond network into smaller cellulose molecules. Ethanol then triggers molecular reconstruction, reforming dense hydrogen bonds and creating a tough, uniform plastic. This ethanol-mediated restructuring produces a chemically modified cellulose network that delivers exceptional mechanical performance.
The material can be shaped through injection molding, compression molding, and machining, making it compatible with existing manufacturing systems. That versatility is crucial because new materials must fit into current industrial pipelines to be commercially viable. Tests show that the bamboo plastic outperforms commonly used engineering plastics such as ABS and polylactic acid, making it suitable for rigid applications requiring durability and heat resistance.
Sadly, they don’t mention the solvents, only the catalyst for hardening (ethanol - which would be OK).
I believe the original article is this:
In this case, the solvents would be:
By employing a hydrated ZnCl₂/formic acid deep eutectic solvent (DES), we disassemble the native H-bond matrix of bamboo cellulose into a homogeneous molecular system. Subsequent ethanol stimulation triggers the rearrangement of cellulose chains, fostering dense, ordered H-bond interactions between hydroxyl and formate ester groups (Fig. 1b).
Now, formic acid is ecologically OK. Zinc chloride, not entirely so (zinc is not a substance to waste or throw around), but if it’s recovered in the process then it would be OK. Coincidentally, their process includes recovery of zinc chloride:
DES recycling
The spent calcium chloride solution and the ethanol used for washing the gel were collected and mixed. An equimolar amount of 48 wt% sulfuric acid was then added to precipitate the calcium ions. This mixture underwent vacuum filtration to remove the precipitated ions, followed by rotary evaporation of the residual liquid to eliminate the ethanol and recover the recycled DES.
Recycling and reuse process of BM-plastic The recycled DES solvent (ZnCl 2 /FA) was obtained by adding equimolar mass of sulfuric acid to precipitating CaCl 2 , and steaming out ethanol. The recycled BM-plastic was prepared from Re-DES and BM-plastic chips, through the molecular system and molecular gel preparation process mentioned above, as well as the ethanol stimulation process.
So, overall, this all sounds sensible to me. Whether it’s economical, I cannot tell so fast.
Yeah I will believe this when I see this available for my 3D Printer. There really is a community need for actual biodegradable filament
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I recall them saying this about electric cars and solar panels 10-15 years ago.
We’ll just put it up here on the shelf next to the other ten durable biodegradable bioplastics.
deafboyAnd if it does, it’ll only be for the rich ™️.
/s
Jesus christ, people. It’s ok to cheer a bit after hearing a good news.
yessikgI have been buying corn ‘plastic’ bags for years so I don’t see why not
The thing is: People like plastic exactly because it’s not biodegradable.
The thing is, there are tons of single use (ugh) plastic still in the world and many other similar highly vulnerable and replacable products that would benefit greatly from being made biodegradable even if they could magically rot on the shelf. Like food already does.
yeah, i think a lot more things should be packed in waxed paper or tinfoil, like back in the day. nowadays it’s hard to get even toothpaste in foil tubes like we used to in the 80s/90s.
well read the article: this one is entirely not biodegradable until you put it in the ground. It sounds like the perfect mix
they say it will be suitable for cars etc