Our oceans hold 250 million tons of plastic, killing wildlife and clogging up shipping pathways.

    But a new “vanishing” material could tackle the problem by creating plastic products, such as toys, that dissolve on demand.

    Researchers are currently using this vanishing plastic to create a child’s toy that self-destructs.

    The mechanism can be almost anything the researchers choose, from simple sunlight to specific chemicals triggers.

    Plastics could be designed to melt when they meet a specific sewage-system bacteria*, or even urine.

    While children’s toys are not the main offender when it comes to plastic waste, the researchers’ work is an important proof-of-concept.

    The researchers created the melting toys using special polymers* — the long, chain-linked molecules* that build to make plastics.

    They fused normal polymer chains with tiny, temperature-sensitive units dotted along the polymer chain.

    These self-destruct units are rigged to break at room temperature when they are triggered by a particular stimulus*.

    (SD-Agencies)