We all know the dilemma on our planet. The world is full of plastic, and everyday we produce more and more of it for all kinds of reasons. Ari Jónsson is a 24 year old student of Icelandic Academy of Arts and he decided to work on a solution for one of the biggest problems of our planet and life upon it. Plastic. In the US alone are thrown away 35 billion plastic bottles each year, which take around 500-1000 years to decompose.
“I read that 50 per cent of plastic is used once and then thrown away so I feel there is an urgent need to find ways to replace some of the unreal amount of plastic we make.”
So he asked himself: “Why are we using plastic bottles that take hundreds of years to break down in nature only to drink from them once and then throw them away?” This question took him on a journey on which he studied the strengths and weaknesses of certain substances until he found an answer to his question and ti´s made from red algae. The substance he created can be formed into anything by mixing the algae with water adding heat and then placing the resulting jelly into a mold and finally into a freezer. However it will only keep it´s form when filled with water. After you drank the water, it will start to decompose.