science
Certain bacteria store spare energy as tiny polymer granules inside their cells. Engineers harvest these granules to make plastics that can break down in soil or seawater.
Bioplastics is the broad name given to these microbe-made plastics, produced when bacteria store spare energy as tiny polymer granules inside their own cells, which engineers can then harvest and process into a usable plastic material. Unlike conventional plastics made from petroleum, many of these microbial bioplastics are able to biodegrade naturally in environments like soil or seawater.
Thermosets are a category of plastic that hardens permanently once cured and cannot be melted down and reshaped, a description based on how a plastic behaves under heat rather than what it is made from. Silicones are synthetic polymers built around silicon-oxygen chains, chemically distinct from these carbon-based bacterial polymers.
Bacteria such as Cupriavidus necator naturally accumulate these polyhydroxyalkanoate, or PHA, granules as an energy reserve much like humans store fat, and scientists simply repurpose that natural storage behavior to manufacture biodegradable plastic at scale.
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