Single use plastics like cups and straws litter our beaches and won’t biodegrade, but what if we made them out of the proteins that spiders use to spin their webs?
Scientists at Cambridge have studied the silk spiders spin and figured out how to direct protein molecules to assemble themselves the same way. They have produced materials that behave like plastics but could go right into the composter. In fact, they have even made some wrappers that are completely edible.
This suggests that one day you may be able to eat your lunch, together with the shell it came in!
