Last month we shared a story about shellfish being used to manufacture compostable food packaging. This week, fish are swimming back into the packaging spotlight with a biodegradable plastic alternative made out of fish skin. MarinaTex, developed by the University of Sussex graduate student Lucy Hughes, is translucent, strong, and flexible. Best of all, it biodegrades in four to six weeks.
The material gets its strength from extracted proteins from fish waste and is ideal for single-use plastics like sandwich bags. The project, which won the 2019 James Dyson Award, not only offers a sustainable and biodegradable alternative to single-use plastic, but does so out of fish waste which is an abundant by-product from fishing industries.
