How a young mom’s cancer journey sparked a kelp-based alternative to plastic

https://news.northeastern.edu/2025/10/30/plastic-alternative-kelp-based-innovator-award/

Crossposted from https://lemmy.world/post/38615567

114 points · 9 comments · view on lemmy.world

9 Comments

zabadoh@ani.social · 12 pts · 304d (2 replies)

I hope it's all it's cracked up to be: Both fully biodegradable and sustainable film for applications like detergent pods.

Cethin@lemmy.zip · 3 pts · 304d

Even better, don't use detergent pods. They're a scam. They don't do anything better than the powder, except take money out of your pocket significantly faster.

tae_glas@slrpnk.net · 2 pts · 304d

yeah! there are plenty of single-use plastics that are unavoidable at present (like all the plastic packaging keeping things sealed & sterile in hospitals); it'd be so great to be able to swap those out for something that can then biodegrade once they're done with it! 🥳

Knock_Knock_Lemmy_In@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 304d

Seak(h)elp

tornavish@lemmy.cafe · 0 pts · 304d (4 replies)

Tomorrow: microplastics found in kelp

tae_glas@slrpnk.net · 10 pts · 304d (3 replies)

quite likely, since microplastics have found their way everywhere, even into our brains etc too! but finding as many alternatives to plastic as possible, wherever possible, seems like a good place to start reducing future microplastics.

there's some promising research in fungi / mycoremediation to safely break down the microplastics lying around in our soil etc too 🤞

tornavish@lemmy.cafe · -1 pts · 304d (2 replies)

Fungus shampoo! What could go wrong?

tae_glas@slrpnk.net · 3 pts · 304d (1 reply)

there was no mention of shampoo. there's research going into using fungi to biodegrade microplastics in soil, like here: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9330918/

tornavish@lemmy.cafe · 0 pts · 304d

Shampoo is in the article containing plastic.