You're reading: Ukrainian scientist invents eco-friendly ‘plastic’ bags

When it was invented early last century, plastic, a versatile, waterproof, non-conducting material that can be put to a huge number of uses, was a blessing.

But now the wonder-material’s durability has made it a curse for the environment: Huge amounts of plastic have accumulated in the oceans, where wave action and sunlight break it down into micro-particles that are poisoning sea life. On land, lots of plastic winds up in landfill sites: indigestible by the bacteria that break down natural waste, it ends up fouling the land for decades.

Much of the plastic pollution is made up of the ubiquitous plastic shopping bag, or plastic garbage sacks. According to the Earth Policy Institute, around the world nearly 2 million single-use plastic bags are used each minute. Each Ukrainian uses dozens or even hundreds of plastic bags per year, practically all of which end up in the garbage.

But Ukrainian scientist Dmytro Bidiuk has come up with an inventive solution to the problem, by inventing eco-friendly “plastic” bags.
The invention was sparked by Bidiuk’s accidental discovery of a strange property of a chemical compound.

Lucky accident

Bidiuk, a 33-year-old assistant professor at Sumy National Agrarian University in Sumy, a city of 269,000 people 330 kilometers northeast of Kyiv, discovered a biodegradable material that could be used to make bags as he and his students were studying the composition of foods in the spring of 2018.

Quite by chance, they found out that a drop of a polysaccharide solution melts and forms an elastic film during a drying process. Using the same technology, they managed to obtain a thin soft film made from polysaccharide.

The film is a biodegradable analog of polyethylene, meaning that unlike ordinary plastic, it can be decomposed by bacteria or other living organisms.
Bidiuk, however, refuses to share the exact formula — he says he is keeping it secret because his invention hasn’t been patented yet.

“I will patent the technology abroad after optimizing the recipe,” he told the Kyiv Post.

The scientist says that there are many other types of such films, but he hasn’t seen a film made with the same technique that he uses.

Eco-friendly bags

Soon after creating the film, Bidiuk decided to make a bag out of it.

“I’m very concerned about ecological issues,” he said.

After a number of experiments, the scientist created the first eco-friendly bag, and he was satisfied with the result.

“I was pleasantly surprised and inspired to do new experiments,” he said.

Since then, the scientist has made four kinds of bags: small ones with or without handles, and big ones with cut out or loop handles.

According to Bidiuk, a biodegradable bag looks and feels similar to a polyethylene one, except that it is a bit softer and less transparent.

The eco-friendly bags can hold dry solid contents, like vegetables, fruit, and cereals. The bags can’t hold liquids or wet products yet, but Bidiuk is working on creating a special waterproof inner lining for them.

In order to prove that his product is biodegradable, the scientist buried it in the ground, and the packaging fully decomposed within a month.
Apart from that, Bidiuk says that the packaging is not only biodegradable but also edible, since it is made from natural ingredients. According to the scientist, it tastes “neutral, pretty much like noodles.”

Moreover, the scientist says that his invention is more enduring than some of the other forms of biodegradable packaging.

“The packaging that I designed is stronger than corn starch packaging,” he said. “And it swells when exposed to water, while a starch one dissolves,” he added.

Nevertheless, the scientist says that the material’s formula is not perfect yet, and he is constantly working to improve it.

In October 2018, Bidiuk’s invention received international acclaim: the bags won Bidiuk the Sustainability Award in the International University Startup World Cup held in Copenhagen, Denmark.

The award drew the attention of Ukrainian society and media to Bidiuk’s eco-friendly bags, which is encouraging the scientist to perfect his creation.

“I was inspired by the fact that this invention provoked a public response,” he said.

Mass production

Bidiuk does not use the products he creates in his everyday life because there are not that many of them yet.

He says that it takes him half a day to make one bag in a laboratory.

However, this will soon change, as Bidiuk expects to launch the mass production of his eco-friendly bags in about three months.

He will buy a part of the necessary equipment using a Hr 500,000 grant he won from drinks company Carlsberg Ukraine in December 2018.

Bidiuk plans to buy a machine designed for making plastic bags, which will produce around 1,500 medium-sized bags per hour. However, Bidiuk says he will make bags of various sizes.

And there is already demand for the scientist’s product.

Bidiuk says that both Ukrainian and foreign companies involved in the field of light and food industry have shown interest in his product.

“There is also interest from potential investors from Denmark and Britain.”

A biodegradable bag is more expensive than a regular thin plastic bag: the prime cost of Bidiuk’s bag is Hr 0.25, while the price of a plastic bag is Hr 0.03–0.05.

However, using eco-friendly bags people won’t have to pay a bigger price in terms of damaging the environment: After the products are worn out or torn, they can be reused as a fertilizer, fodder, or as a source of biogas fuel, which is produced during its decomposition.

In the future, Bidiuk hopes to develop biodegradable cups and straws, but for now he is focused on perfecting his bags.

“It’s unlikely that my bags will replace the plastic ones completely, but we will be able to replace them at least partially in Ukraine,” he said. “I plan to develop this project in Ukraine, but when I have an opportunity, I would like to take it abroad.”