Your Plastic Packaging Could Soon Be Replaced With ‘Vegan Spider Silk’
Image via Shutterstock
As the search for sustainable alternatives to single-use plastics continues, researchers at the University of Cambridge have looked to one of humankind’s greatest fears: the spider.
They have now invented “spider silk” that is eco-friendly and scalable for consumer product packaging. Plus, it’s plant-based, as no spiders are involved in the production of the material. Worry not, Peter Parker.
The intriguing “vegan spider silk,” as researchers of University of Cambridge-owned plastic startup Xampla call it, mimics one of the strongest materials in nature without the use of any animal byproducts. It is made up of a polymer film, along with a configuration of soy protein isolate molecules, and can thus hold its structure as well as plastic packaging.
“Other researchers have been working directly with silk materials as a plastic replacement, but they’re still an animal product,” explained postdoctoral researcher Dr Marc Rodriguez Garcia in a statement obtained by New Food Magazine. “In a way, we’ve come up with ‘vegan spider silk’ – we’ve created the same material without the spider.”
Apart from structural integrity, the material is water-resistant, doesn’t fade in color, and can easily be composted at home.
And unlike many existing plastic substitutes, vegan spider silk can reasonably be produced on an industrial scale.
Xampla is financing the material’s commercialization in hopes that single-use plastics would one day be phased out.
By taking hints from spiders, a team from @ChemCambridge has developed a plant-based alternative to single-use plastics.
— Cambridge University (@Cambridge_Uni) June 10, 2021
The first products should be available later this year from @XamplaUK: https://t.co/6llSAzQrMd#Sustainability #Plastic #Vegan
[via Green Matters and New Food Magazine, cover image via Shutterstock]
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