This is great progress! If a solution like this can reduce global hard plastic usage by even 1%, that would be a massive impact.

It's encouraging to see smart people attacking this hard problem persistently, delivering new solutions, and inching us closer to a real breakthrough with each iteration.

This is a total guess, but I imagine some of our biggest uses for single-use plastic involves food containers, medical equipment, and protecting things from the elements during transit. A lot of times that means exposure to salty solutions. Dissolving overnight would probably be way too fast.

> Dissolving overnight would probably be way too fast.

They addressed that issue, it's in the article.

I don't think they really did? A single scratch to cause it to break down doesn't seem like it would really be a scalable solution for any kind of mass produced material like this. Would cause chaos if any individual container went bad in a shipment, so it's not really addressed I feel. OP's concerns still stand.

> medical equipment

This will be perfect for IV bags!

What's the element that will have this invention NOT be killed by the usual suspects, though?

It's really not the first time something game-changing has been invented, only for it not be heard of ever again.

Obligatory "it's a big step to production", but we need heaps of new research on biodegradabe plastics by yesterday, so this is hopeful. I wish they'd say what kind of plastic it replaces, though.