Why not edible plastic: Plastic is the “mother of all industries” once said by an expert and is accurate keeping the consideration that every single thing used in our day to day life is made up of plastic and now a days it’s the looming threat globally.
Many countries including Pakistan take the momentous steps to cut down the increasing plastic pollution. Seeing, the need of hour a Pakistani female researcher Dr. Anjum Feroz from Karachi University came up with idea and successfully manufactured edible plastic from mango seeds.
Dr. Anjum is pursuing her doctorate in KU’s food science and technology department. She created a solution for Pakistan’s plastic pollution, considering Pakistan being the fourth-largest producer of mangoes worldwide.
The plastic is made using mango waste as there is around 60% starch present in the kernel. So, the kernel of a mango seed can be used to successfully making biodegradable film or an edible form of plastic.
She told BBC that “We have developed a method to extract and utilize starch to make edible plastic, if you extract the starch and store it, you can easily use it as raw material for over a year.”
Dr. Anjum stated that,
“Don’t use the plastic and throw it. Eat it instead. Or dissolve it in water.”