Create biodegradable plastic with cactus

"I'm removing the spine, and the pulp is what I'm putting on the press to get that juice, and the juice is what I use," he said. AFP researcher at the University of Valle del Atemajac in Guadalajara, western Jalisco. This substance It is mixed with non-toxic additives to get the plastic.

Pascoe usually acquires nopales for his trials in San Esteban, a small town in the suburbs of Guadalajara surrounded by hills and cactus gardens, in which the majority of his 37,000 inhabitants are devoted to growing cactus, present in the shield National of Mexico

"What we do, is try to focus on objects that do not have a long life." We think of a type of disposable product, a packaging, this type of product that n & # 39; It does not have such durability, single use, "he added.

The excessive use of plastics, which takes a long time to deteriorate, has prompted several entities in Mexico to take action in this regard. In September 2018, the Jalisco Congress pbaded a law prohibiting companies from using single-use plastic bags that are not biodegradable, as well as other products such as sorbets or disposable items. The enforcement of this law will take effect from 2020. Pascoe hopes to get the plastic patent before the end of the year, and then look for its mbad production. "It depends on the applications we get, there could be a technology transfer for a company interested in exploiting the product," he said.

He recognizes that, even if it is an environmentally friendly material, stopping contamination of non-recyclable materials is not an integral solution because, he says, the replacement of all plastics is not not as fast or as realistic.

It will only be "a grain of sand, there must be other types of recycling strategies to prevent them from going to the sea, the countryside or the forest," said Pascoe.

In Latin America and the Caribbean, about 10% of the world's waste is produced, according to UN data. In March, UN member countries meeting in Nairobi, Kenya, pledged to "drastically reduce" single-use plastics over the next decade, with eight million tonnes of this material being dumped into the United States. oceans each year.