Research Reveals That Spider Silk Can Replace Single-use Plastics

JAKARTA - A team at the University of Cambridge, England was able to create a polymer film by mimicking the properties of spider silk, one of nature's strongest materials. This product is as strong as the ordinary plastics used today and can completely replace the material in many common household products.

Vegan spider silk is made using a method that assembles plant proteins into a material that mimics silk at the molecular level, resulting in a plastic-like freestanding film, which can be fabricated on an industrial scale.

Professor Tuomas Knowles has spent many years in Cambridge's Joseph Hamied Department of Chemistry, researching the behavior of proteins. He focused his studies on what happens when proteins 'behave badly', particularly in relation to Alzheimer's disease.

"We usually investigate how functional protein interactions allow us to stay healthy, how irregular interactions have implications for Alzheimer's", said Knowles, who led the study.

"It was surprising to find that our research can also address a big problem in sustainability, namely plastic pollution".

While most other types of bioplastic require industrial composting facilities to decompose, they can be composted at home. In addition, the Cambridge-developed materials do not require chemical modifications to their natural building blocks, so they can be safely degraded in most natural environments.

It's also not the first of its kind. A team of researchers at Berkeley claimed to have created the world's first biodegradable and compostable plastic earlier this year. The new plastic can be degraded up to 98 percent in household compost in just a few days, simply by adding heat and water.

Vegan silk will be commercialized by Xampla, a University of Cambridge company that develops substitutes for single-use plastics and microplastics.

They plan to introduce a range of single-use sachets and capsules later this year, to replace the plastics used in everyday products such as dishwashing tablets and laundry detergent capsules.

This material has performance equivalent to high-performance engineering plastics, such as low-density polyethylene. Its strength lies in the regular arrangement of the chains, which means that no chemical cross-linking is required, a technique often used to improve the performance and durability of biopolymer films.

The most common crosslinking agents are unsustainable and can even be toxic. In contrast, the new vegan spider silk does not require any toxic elements.

"The main breakthrough here is the ability to control self-assembly, so we can now manufacture high-performance materials", said Xampla Research Director Rodriguez Garcia.

"It's great to be a part of this journey. There is a huge plastic pollution problem in the world, and we are in a fortunate position to be able to do something about it".