Today’s Solutions: November 05, 2024

Buy a plant or flowers and more often than not it will come in a pot made of black plastic that you’ll get rid of once you replant your new purchase. But that black plastic is incredibly hard to recycle, making the act of growing plants more wasteful than it should be.

Now there’s a solution: If you bring flowers planted in this new type of pot home from a nursery, you’ll be able to plant everything—including the plastic pot—in your backyard. The material, which is in development now, is designed to slowly break down in the soil. The new bioplastic pot is made primarily from lignin, waste product from the paper industry. In the past, paper mills often burned the material to create energy. But as the cost of other energy dropped and paper sales fell, the industry began to consider other ways to make use of the material—such as turning it into a bioplastic.

Unlike other plant-based plastics, this one requires no extra land to make since its a waste product of the paper industry. Future iterations of the product could include nutrients to help feed the plant, or biodegradable plastic sheets designed to replace the plastic “mulch” used in massive quantities on strawberry farms and other crops. Another potential product could be designed to slowly break down in the soil, to replace polluting fertilizers. In the future, the company also plans to develop more products beyond plastic.

Solutions News Source Print this article
More of Today's Solutions

Brazil fines meat producers $64 million over ties to deforested Amazon land

BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM In a major environmental crackdown, Brazil's IBAMA fined meat packers and cattle ranchers $64 million for rearing or ...

Read More

How to spot a moon ring: a guide to lunar halos and other moonlight phenomena

BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM The ring around the moon, also known as the lunar halo, is a breathtaking yet surprisingly common sight ...

Read More

The surprising reason you should turn your camera off during Zoom calls

To all of you who have been keeping their cameras off during Zoom calls, well done. You may have simply been trying to hide ...

Read More

Hummingbirds have the widest color range of all birds

Among the different species of birds, hummingbirds are among the most iconic and distinct in the skies. These unique creatures hover unlike most birds, ...

Read More