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Investigadora mexicana crea plástico biodegradable con jugo de nopal

Woman in Mexico Creates Plastic from Cactus that Biodegrades in a Month

La académica Sandra Pascoe Ortiz, de la Universidad del Valle de Atemajac (UNIVA) en Guadalajara, desarrolló un bioplástico que podrían reemplazar a las bolsas de plástico que tardan hasta 450 años en degradarse y preservar el medio ambiente.

Tras pulverizar trozos secos de nopal y mezclarlos con otros elementos, pero los resultados no fueron buenos hasta que utilizó el jugo del nopal, que los resultados esperados.

Pascoe suele adquirir los nopales para sus ensayos en San Esteban, un pequeño poblado a las afueras de Guadalajara rodeado de colinas con huertos de nopal, en el que la mayoría de sus 37 mil habitantes se dedican al cultivo del cactus, presente en el escudo nacional de México.

“Lo que hacemos es tratar de enfocarlo a objetos que no tengan largo tiempo de vida. Estamos pensando en algún tipo de desechables, empaques, ese tipo de productos que no tengan tanta durabilidad, de un solo uso”, agregó.

Pascoe espera obtener antes de terminar el año la patente del plástico para después buscar su producción en masa.

“Depende de las aplicaciones que logremos obtener, pudiera haber una transferencia de tecnología para alguna empresa que esté interesada en la explotación del producto”, dijo.

Reconoce que a pesar de ser un material amigable con el medio ambiente no es una solución integral para dejar de contaminar con materiales no reciclables ya que, asegura, no es tan rápido ni tan factible que se puedan sustituir todos los plásticos.

Solo será “un granito de arena, debe haber otro tipo de estrategias de reciclado para evitar que vayan a parar al mar, al campo o al bosque”, recalcó Pascoe.

 

AFP

 

 

English:

On a recent morning, Sandra Pascoe Ortiz, a chemical engineering professor, sat down at a restaurant and ordered one of her favorite drinks: a blend of grapefruit, pineapple, celery, parsley, spinach and prickly pear cactus.

Pascoe Ortiz has for years been drinking this blend known in Mexico as “green juice,” but she said she also enjoys consuming the prickly pear cactus — a national symbol and staple in the country’s diet — in the many forms in which it’s popular: grilled, boiled or even raw with salads.

Pascoe Ortiz and her students at the University of the Valley of Atemajac just outside Guadalajara have come up with a new use for the prickly pear cactus — known in Mexico as nopal — using its juice as a base for biodegradable plastic.

In 2013, some of her students came to her with a class project to use the prickly pear cactus as the base for a biodegradable plastic, she said. They abandoned it after a semester, but Pascoe said she told herself, “This can be done.” She continued the project on her own and with other students.

In her lab on campus, Pascoe Ortiz lays out round and square plastic samples she and her students have made since that first classroom experiment. The first samples are rusty brown and roughly the size and shape of quarters. The most recent samples are light green, paper thin and tough enough to be used as bags, Pascoe Ortiz said.

She initially used opuntia ficus indica, the variety of prickly pear most commonly used as food. She has switched to opuntia megacantha, a variety not commonly eaten but instead cultivated for its fruit. She and her students extract the juice, which is bold green, thick and slimey, and mix it with glycerine, animal fat and wax, she said.

A former student, Michelle Mendoza, who recently completed coursework in in industrial engineering, is still working with Pascoe Ortiz. Mendoza said she used the formula to make toys for her 3-year-old daughter.

At least the prickly pear-based toys will dissolve if she leaves them in water for three weeks, Mendoza said.

Using biodegradable products is good, but using fewer products would be better, said Stephanie Buechler, a University of Arizona professor who studies gender, environment and agriculture. We should focus on re-using the materials we have, she said.

“Using fewer materials will save land. It will save water. It will save the environment by not contaminating as much,” Buechler said. “And then, for the materials we really do need, we should think of ways like this to use less harmful inputs.”

Back at the University of the Valley of Atemajac outside of Guadalajara, Professor Sandra Pascoe Ortiz says she would like to see her biodegradable plastic used commercially, though said she plans to continue her work as a researcher and doesn’t expect to see a profit herself.

Pascoe Ortiz hopes the cactus-based plastic will help reduce the impact of solid waste in Mexico and around the world, she said.

 

Fronteras Desk

 

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