The Development Of New Ecological Type Of Adhesive

Sticky tape has been used for more than 80 years. We use it in our everyday lives and it plays a quite important job like sealing packages and taping a broken object to fix it. The only problem is that the adhesive (the sticky part) of the tape is made from a fossil fuel called Crude oil. As some of you might already know, fossil fuels take millions of years for them to develop so once we reach the limit we will have to find a different alternative for the adhesive. In addition, processing it also emits pollution.

So what can we do? Scientists have found out a new type of adhesive. A team of Researchers at the University of Delaware in Newark decided to find a more environmentally friendly option. The adhesives are called polymers. As it is said by the students for Delaware University, “These are long molecules made from chains of repeating chemical building blocks”. They can be made from ingredients that contain a lot of different sources. They discovered a better solution called Lignin, which is a natural polymer and is made from trees and makes woody plants stable and strong.

First, the team started with popular trees and soaked the wood in some chemicals to break down the molecules into smaller pieces. After the chemicals break down, they collect the pieces and then they change it chemically so the molecules could form polymers. The polymer from Lignin is almost identical as the polymer from crude oil! The quality and strength of the new adhesive glue was similar to standard scotch tape, found in an art supply store.

This adhesive could help the environment in many ways as it doesn’t emit pollutant gasses when manufacturing, doesn't trash our planet when we throw it away, but it also prevents the waste of Lingin as Lingin is one of the wastes from making paper and ethanol from trees! This is a great idea and invention but the only problem for it to reach the shops and mass production is trying to convince people that it is better. The big tape companies want to stick to their old adhesive as they don’t care about the world and environment but the money.

Many companies with plastic products are starting to realize that something needs to be done and are slowly starting to find “greener” alternatives for chemicals and plastic used in the products. For example, when you go grocery shopping and you are paying, the cashier can ask you if you want a normal plastic bag or a more expensive, but more durable and eco-friendly plastic bag. That means that the bag is either made from recycled plastic or it can be recycled. Some shops use only recycled or recyclable bags.

Another example is glue as the chemicals in the glue are poisonous and bad for the environment and slowly more and more glue brands use eco-friendly glue chemicals. The new discovery of the young and extremely talented students could have an immense impact on the world. The production would emit much fewer pollutant gasses and the tape itself would not harm the environment as much when simply thrown away. I hope that this great idea will successfully reach the stores around the world and help make the world a better place to live in.