The accumulation of plastic waste in natural environments is of utmost concern, as it is contributing to the destruction of ecosystems and is causing harm to aquatic life. In recent years, material scientists have thus been trying to identify all-natural alternatives to plastic that could be used to package or manufacture products.
Researchers at University of Maryland, College Park, recently devised a new approach to discover promising biodegradable plastic alternatives. Their proposed method, outlined in a paper published in Nature Nanotechnology, combines state-of-the-art machine learning techniques with molecular science.
