While we will have to live with current plastics in the ocean. Here is a solution for current to future production of plastics.

Breaking down plastics' problem as new solution abounds

The focus of the plastics industry has long been on a product's functionality during its lifespan. This approach is no longer tenable, writes Michael Stephen. Plastics are among the most popular materials in use today. Given the material's versatility, it is little wonder that some 320m tonnes of it are used around the world each year.

From article, (If not disposed of properly, plastics can lie or float around for decades. In addition to being harmful to terrestrial and aquatic life, free-floating plastics in oceans can adsorb toxins and break up into micro-plastics, which then enter the food chain.

 The focus of the plastics industry has long been on a product’s functionality during its lifespan. This approach is no longer tenable. The world needs a new type of plastic — one that will perform well, but will also biodegrade much faster than the plastics we use today.

Enter oxo-biodegradable plastic (OBP). Unlike other plastics, including bio-plastics, OBP biodegrades anywhere in the environment, and can be recycled if collected during its lifetime.

Ordinary plastic products can be upgraded to OBP with existing machinery at the time of manufacture and at little to no extra cost, using technology that the Oxo-biodegradable Plastics Association is working to explain.

OBP is produced when a special additive is mixed with a normal polymer. The additive (produced by a company where I am a director) dismantles the molecular structure of the polymer at the end of its useful life and enables natural decomposition in an open environment.

And, when it comes to OBP, decomposition doesn’t mean breakdown into plastic fragments.

As Ignacy Jakubowicz, a professor at the Research Institutes of Sweden and one of the world’s leading experts on polymers, explains, when OBPs break down, the material changes entirely, with hydrocarbon molecules becoming oxygen-containing molecules that can be assimilated back into the environment.

The world does not need new bans or taxes. Rather, it needs people who work with plastic, and their governments, to become as adaptable as the material itself, taking advantage of technological advances to ensure that we can make the most of a cheap and versatile material, without subjecting the environment to its damaging impact.)

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