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RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT FINAL PROJECTSEA-STRAW (Edible Straw)
Summary
This student project developed an edible straw made from natural materials as an alternative to single-use plastic straws. It is a product design project aimed at reducing plastic waste, with no primary research on microplastic pollution.
In the year of 2019 with the following years, people will have a problem with plastic. Plastic is one of the most used item in the history of human being. People use it as a packaging, fishing lines, glues, etc every day without realizing on how long it takes for plastic to decomposed/disappear. It only takes hours or maybe minutes for them to throw plastic like its going to disappear in seconds, when normally, plastic takes over 100 years or more to dicomposed. So that I come with a breakthrough of creating an edible straw that I called “Sea-Straw”. Sea-Straw is made out of seaweed that came out of the ocean. Before we get through a lot more question, here is a fact: 1. In the year of 2017, Americans used about 390 million plastic straws each day. This data comes from from the market research firm, Freedonia Group. 2. Straws are currently the 8th most found ocean trash in cleanups by quanity (January 2019). 3. It is projected that by 2050, 99% of all sea bird species will have ingested plastic. Mortality rate can be “up to” 50%. And, already, research has shown plastic in sea salt, 94% of U.S. tap water, and shellfish. Plastic Straws are really bad for the Earth, especially to the ocean. When plastic does make it into the ocean it breaks down into smaller and smaller pieces known as “microplastics” rather than biodegrading or dissolving, which poses great threats to marine life including fish.
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