Ditch brightly coloured plastic, anti-waste researchers tell firms

2 comments

1. All about what happens to plastics exposed to the sun and elements.

   >Retailers are being urged to stop making everyday products such as drinks bottles, outdoor furniture and toys out of brightly coloured plastic after researchers found it degrades into microplastics faster than plainer colours.

   >Red, blue and green plastic became “very brittle and fragmented”, while black, white and silver samples were “largely unaffected” over a three-year period, according to the findings of the University of Leicester-led project.

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   >In this case, scientists from the UK and the University of Cape Town in South Africa used complementary studies to show that plastics of the same composition degrade at different rates depending on the colour.

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   >The findings demonstrate that the black, white and silver colourants protect the plastic from damaging ultraviolet (UV) radiation, whereas other pigments do not. UV damage changes the plastic’s polymer structure, making it brittle and susceptible to fragmentation.

2. All plastic needs to be biodegradable compostable. It’s the only way.