Seeking solutions to counteract the rise in plastic trash, scientists at the University of California San

Diego have developed new biodegradable materials that are designed to replace conventionally
used plastic. After proving their polyurethane foams biodegrade in land-based composts, an
interdisciplinary team of scientists including UC San Diego biologist Stephen Mayfield and chemists
Michael Burkart and Robert "Skip" Pomeroy have now shown that the material biodegrades in
seawater. The results are published in the journalScience of the Total Environment.
The researchers are working to address a plastic pollution problem now described as a global
environmental crisis. In 2010, researchers estimated that 8 billion kilograms of plastic enter the
ocean in a single year, with a steep escalation predicted by 2025. Upon entering the ocean, plastic
waste disrupts marine ecosystems, migrates to central locations and forms trash gyres such as the
Great Pacific Garbage Patch, which covers an area more than 1.6 million square kilometers. These
plastics never degrade, but rather break up into ever-smaller particles, eventually becoming
microplastics that persist in the environment for centuries.