Marine
Controlling erosion of our coastlines and estuaries is a problem that bioplastics can help solve. Restoration is achievable through sound planning, use of advanced environmental practices, and understanding the importance of natural habitat in both the water and surrounding land. Telles has numerous marine projects underway that assess the marine biodegradation properties of Mirel bioplastic resins. These projects involve government and local universities to validate the benefit of Mirel in a range of shoreline applications. One project involves:
- Submerged Aquatic Vegetation (SAV) restoration using Mirel bioplastics, replacing PVC, to restore the marine habitat in the Chesapeake Bay area
Mirel resins will biodegrade in marine environments in accordance with ASTM D7081 for marine-biodegradable non-floating plastics. This standard specification, along with the standard method ASTM 6691 for determining aerobic biodegradation of plastic materials in the marine environment, was developed at the U.S. Army Natick Soldier Research, Development and Engineering Center (NSRDEC) in Natick, Massachusetts, with support from the U.S. Navy and the Waste Reduction Afloat Protects the Sea (WRAPS) Program. Metabolix has worked with NSRDEC using Mirel PHA resin grades to help qualify the biodegradation of water-resistant yet marine-biodegradable bioplastics.
Mirel base resins are now being used as a benchmark bioplastic material for further development of marine biodegradation studies to qualify other laboratory testing locations, including Organic Waste Systems (OWS) in Belgium, an independent contract-research laboratory with a worldwide reputation in the field of biodegradability testing of bioplastics and novel packaging materials.