像食物一樣，可快速降解的塑料

This new packaging prototype looks like conventional plastic, but it’s actually made from fish waste and algae—and unlike plastic, if it escapes into the ocean, a fish could likely eat it safely. The material, called MarinaTex, is the winner of this year’s James Dyson Award.

這種新式包裝的樣品看起來就像普通的塑料，但它實際上是用魚的廢料和藻類制成的，而且它不像塑料，如果它流入大海，魚兒吃掉它完全沒問題。這種名為MarinaTex的材料贏得了本年度詹姆斯·戴森設(shè)計大獎。

“It began with my desire to work with waste,” says Lucy Hughes, a recent graduate from the U.K.’s University of Sussex, who began developing the material as a student.

剛從英國蘇塞克斯大學畢業(yè)的露西·休斯表示：“我想處理廢料，于是開始了這項研究。”她從學生時代就開始開發(fā)這種材料。

Through a contact at the university, Hughes visited a fish processing plant to see the massive quantity of waste generated by the industry and find new ways to use it.

通過大學的接洽，休斯參觀了一家水產(chǎn)加工廠，她了解到該行業(yè)產(chǎn)生了大量廢料，她想找出利用這些廢料的新方法。

She focused on fish skins and scales. “When I had it in my hands, I realized this has got potential,” she says. “It’s super strong and flexible and pliable.”

她把注意力放在了魚皮和魚鱗上。“當我拿著它的時候，我意識到它很有潛力，”她說。“它非常結(jié)實而且很柔韌。”

Hughes spent months experimenting with fish waste in her kitchen, running more than 100 experiments to find a binder and a process that could hold together the proteins in the fish skins and scales. “I had a lot of failed attempts—a lot of things either went too brittle or too gooey or somewhat moldy,” she says. She finally landed on a type of algae that can be locally sourced.

休斯花了幾個月的時間在她的廚房里用魚的廢料做實驗，她嘗試了100多次來尋找把魚皮和魚鱗中的蛋白質(zhì)粘合在一起的粘合劑和方法。“我失敗了很多次，試過的材料要么太脆，要么太粘，還有的有點發(fā)霉，”她說道。最終她在當?shù)卣业搅艘环N藻類。

The material can be used to replace oil-based plastic in packaging such as bags or the translucent windows used to show products in boxes. As her research continues, Hughes says that she’ll be studying how MarinaTex works as a barrier and how long it could be used to store food.

這種材料可以替代包裝中的油基塑料，如袋子，或是用來展示盒子里的產(chǎn)品的半透明材料。修斯還在繼續(xù)研究，她表示，她將研究如何把MarinaTex變成一種防護材料，以及用它來貯存食物可以存多久。

Unlike some “compostable” plastics, which need to be processed in an industrial composting facility to break down, the new material can break down in four to six weeks in a backyard compost bin.

這種新材料與那些需要在工業(yè)堆肥設(shè)施中進行分解處理的“可降解”塑料不同，把它放在后院的堆肥箱里，4~6周即可分解。

“All the ingredients are food-grade safe,” Hughes says. “So this degrades much like a piece of food would degrade.”

“所有的原料都是食品級的，很安全，”休斯說道。“所以它的降解就像食物降解一樣。”

If it accidentally washed into the ocean and a turtle or fish ate it, it wouldn’t cause problems.

如果它不小心被沖進海里，被海龜或魚吃掉了，也不會產(chǎn)生什么問題。

“I’ve yet to work out the nutritional value for fish,” she says. “But the core ingredients are proteins from fish and algae, so that’s already kind of the diet of a fish anyway.”

“我還沒有算出它對魚類的營養(yǎng)價值，”她說道。“但它的核心成分來自魚類和藻類中的蛋白質(zhì)，所以它也算是魚類的一種餌料了。”