印度公司制成百分百降解可食用“塑料袋”

大家都知道塑料袋危害环境，但是生活中没有塑料袋又很不方便。为此印度研发出了一种环保“塑料袋”，不但可以百分百降解，还可以食用，如果把袋子放在沸水中，只需15秒钟就会完全分解消失。

In an effort to combat plastic pollution, Indian startup EnviGreen has come up with a combination of natural starch and vegetable oils that looks and feels just like plastic, but is 100 percent organic, biodegradable and eco-friendly. You can even dispose of such a “plastic” bag by eating it.

为了解决塑料污染问题，印度新兴企业EnviGreen用天然淀粉和植物油合成出一种塑料状的材料，这种纯有机材料是百分百可降解的，也绝不会损害环境。你甚至可以通过食用来处理这种“塑料袋”。

EnviGreen founder Ashwath Hedge came up with the idea for these revolutionary bags after seeing people struggling to find alternatives to plastic bags, following bans imposed by several Indian cities.

此前，印度的一些城市颁发了禁塑令，但人们却很难找到塑料袋的替代品，目睹了这一窘境后，EnviGreen的创始人阿史沃斯•赫奇提出了这一革新性的理念——百分百降解可食用“塑料袋”。

“People were concerned about how they would carry products from the market now. Everyone cannot afford a bag worth Rs. 5 or Rs. 15 to carry a kilogram of sugar,” he told The Better India. So the 25-year-old decided to work on something that would solve this problem while being environment-friendly.

他对印度资讯网站The Better India说：“人们现在关注用什么方式把商品从超市带回家。人们并不愿为了一千克糖多花五至十五卢比来买包装袋。”所以，25岁的赫奇决定研发一种环保材料以解决这个难题。

Hedge spent four years researching and experimenting with various materials, but one day he discovered a combination of 12 ingredients, including potato, tapioca, corn, natural starch, vegetable oil, banana, and flower oil, that looked and felt like plastic, but posed none of the environmental problems.

赫奇用了4年时间去研究测试不同的材料，直到有一天，他发现用土豆、木薯、谷物、天然淀粉、植物油、香蕉和花油等12种原料混合在一起可以制作出一种新材料，这种材料的外形和触感都很像塑料，但却不会引起任何环境问题。

The manufacturing process is obviously a closely-guarded secret, but the young entrepreneur did reveal that the raw materials are first converted into liquid form, and then taken through a six-stage process to create the bags.

该材料的制作过程现在还是商业秘密，但赫奇透露称，他们会将原料先处理成流体，然后分六个阶段最终制成成品。

The cost of an EnviGreen bag is about 35% higher than that of a plastic bag, but the benefits of using the former are more than worth the extra cost. Once discarded, EnviGreen bags biodegrade naturally in less than 180 days, and if placed in water at room temperature, they dissolve in less than a day. For quick disposal, they can be placed in boiling water, and they dissolve in about 15 seconds.

虽然EnviGreen研发的购物袋成本比一般的塑料袋高出35%左右，但它带来的利益远远大于其额外成本。此款购物袋被丢弃后，可以在6个月之内完全自然降解；如果将它们放置在室温的水中，它们则会在一天内溶解消失。而如果将袋子放在沸水中的话，则分解得更快，大概只需要15秒。

“We don’t use any chemicals at all. Even the paint used for printing on the bags is natural and organic,” Ashwath boasts. That not only means that users can discard them without hurting the environment, but also that animals can safely ingest them.

赫奇说：“我们没有使用任何化学原料。就连袋子上的图案都是由自然有机的涂料绘成的。” 这不止能防止丢弃的袋子污染环境，还能避免动物因误食普通塑料袋而陷入危险。

In fact, EnviGreen “plastic” bags are edible, something that Hedge was more than happy to demonstrate in his interview with The Better India. He simply soaked a bag in water and gulped it down with a smile on his face.

事实上，EnviGreen的“塑料袋”是可食用的，在The Better India的采访中，赫奇对这一点颇为自豪。他简单地用水浸湿袋子，然后面带微笑地将其吞了下去。

The Karnataka State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB) has already approved EnviGreen bags for commercial use, but not before conducting a series of tests. They found that despite their appearance and texture, they contain no plastic, and don’t share its hazardous properties. When burned, the innovative material does not melt, drip, or release any toxic fumes.

经过一系列测试后，卡纳塔克邦州污染控制委员会批准EnviGreen袋上市出售。测试发现，尽管这种袋子外形和结构与塑料很像，但它不含任何塑料成分和有毒物质。EnviGreen袋在燃烧过程中也不会溶解，滴落或是释放有毒气体。

EnviGreen has set up a factory in Bangalore, where it produces around 1,000 metric tonnes of eco-friendly “plastic” bags a month. That’s not very much, considering that the city of Bangalore alone consumes over 30,000 metric tonnes of plastic bags every month, but Hedge claims that he wants to set up enough production facilities before they start distributing to individual customers and shop owners. They have however started supplying the bags to corporate retail chains like Metro and Reliance.

EnviGreen已在班加罗尔建了一家工厂，每月可生产1000公吨的环保“塑料袋”。仅班加罗尔一座城市每月就会消费超过三万公吨的塑料袋，与此相比1000公吨并不算多。现在，他们仅为麦德龙和里莱恩斯等连锁零售集团提供EnviGreen袋。但赫奇表示，他希望先拥有足够强的生产能力，再让这些“塑料袋”走向普通消费者和经营者。

Apart from protecting the environment, Ashwath Hedge also plans to use EnviGreen bags to support local farmers. “We had this unique idea of empowering farmers in rural Karnataka by sourcing all our raw materials from them,” he said. “We are also planning to distribute seeds to help them produce the amount of materials required to make the bags.”

除了保护环境，赫奇还计划用EnviGreen袋支持当地的农民。“我们希望通过从卡纳塔克的农民那里采购所需的原材料，来帮助他们致富，”赫奇说，“我们还计划为农民提供种子，以保证我们有足够的原材料来生产袋子。”

According to the Minister of State for Environment, Forest and Climate Change, over 15,000 tonnes of plastic waste is generated in India every day, only 9,000 of which are collected and processed. Inventions like EnviGreen can help solve this problem, so let’s hope it lives up to its potential.

环境、森林与气候变化部部长称，在印度，每天废弃的塑料袋超过15000吨，然而其中只有9000吨被回收和处理。类似EnviGreen袋的发明有利于解决塑料污染问题，希望它能蓬勃发展。