the answer seems closer every day. Just last August, while the rest of us were hunkering down getting ready for the start of another Zoom semester, a group of pioneering chemists unveiled the newest addition to the growing list of ‘infinitely recyclable’ plastics: PBTL. With high rigidity, thermal resistance, and 100% recyclability, PBTL shows great promise in becoming a suitable plastic alternative in the near future (6). Theoretically, these totally recyclable polymers like PBTL would drastically reduce the need to continuously produce and throw away plastics. So do not fret! Even in the middle of a global pandemic with the
earth warming, animals dying, and plastic threatening to suffocate us all, science will come to the rescue! So, next time you find yourself confronted by that lone Chaco in the seaweed, or that sad water bottle in the sand, don’t pout, throw it out! Who knows? Maybe that crushed vape pen sitting in a landfill will help to evolve an incredible vapepen-eating bacterium that will save the world one day. At the very least, your post-Jacobsen lab report walk will be a tiny bit more pretty.
A View of the Sound 28 | ELEMENTS
BY BISMIKADO
