On December 6, Starbucks launched new biodegradable plant-based straws in its stores in Japan, and starting in March 2025, they will be available in Starbucks stores across Japan. This is another important move in support of the company's environmental commitment to actively utilize resources and its pledge to reduce waste by half by 2030. 

This new straw is made from Green Planet®, a plant-based biodegradable bio polymer. Utilizing vegetable oil as its main ingredient, rather than petroleum derivatives, this new straw naturally degrades to carbon dioxide (CO₂) and microorganisms in the soil, mitigating the problem of ocean pollution from waste plastics, including micro plastics. Over its life cycle, this straw emits less CO₂ than the FSLIC-certified paper straws currently supplied by Starbucks, resulting in half the weight of the straws discarded in Starbucks stores.

This innovation comes from Starbucks delivering the experience one cup at a time, every day, in all of its stores in Japan. The company developed these new straws using valuable input from partners and customers to balance environmental impact and user experience. Strength, durability and smoothness are at the core of their design, while maintaining the iconic Starbucks green color. 

Green Planet® straws are currently available at 32 Starbucks stores in Okinawa Prefecture for customers purchasing chilled beverages, such as Cappuccinos. Starting in March 2025, they will be available at all Starbucks stores in Japan. Subsequently, by early April 2025, thicker straws for seasonal Cappuccino drinks will be available at all stores in Japan. 

Starbucks began transitioning from petroleum-derived plastic straws for iced beverages in 2018 to introduce FSLIC-certified paper straws in Japanese stores in 2020 and thicker straws in 2021. To further reduce waste, Starbucks introduced FSLIC-certified paper cups and utensils made from biomass for takeout orders and began offering customers iced beverages in resin cups to enjoy in-store. 

Starbucks is accelerating its efforts to support the company's environmental commitment in Japan. Nearly 200 stores are now certified as “Green Store” eco-friendly retailers. About 900 locations recycle coffee grounds, eliminating one of the largest amounts of food waste generated in every store.

In 2024, more and more states and cities in the U.S., from the East Coast to the West Coast, are phasing out plastic. 

CALIFORNIA: Possibly in the vanguard of the anti-plastic movement, a second plastic bag ban was enacted in November to close a loophole in the state's first such 2014 law. The previous law made an exception for thicker, high-density polyethylene bags, which are considered reusable and meet certain respectability standards. This new law, which bans all plastic shopping bags in grocery stores, will go into effect on January 1, 2026. A coalition called the Responsible Recycling Alliance (RRA), made up of three California-based recycle's and manufacturers, has formed to fight this new law.RRA urges that these bags be included in the Plastic Pollution Prevention and Packaging Producer Responsibility Program, and argues that the law undermines the progress of the state's recycling infrastructure.

Other noteworthy laws in effect in other U.S. states include the following.

Colorado: Prohibits retail food establishments (grocery and convenience stores) from providing single-use plastic carryout bags. Prohibits retail food establishments from using expanded polystyrene food containers to distribute ready-to-eat foods. Prohibits the distribution of food packaging that is intentionally laden with fluoridated and hydrofluorocarbon substances (PFAS). PFAS are substances known to break down slowly over time. PFAS have been found globally in human and animal blood, as well as in water, air, fish and soil. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has indicated that some studies have shown adverse effects of PFAS on human and animal health.

Hawaii: Prohibits the manufacture or sale of food packaging (wrappers and liners, dinner plates, food containers, and pizza boxes, etc.) to which PFAS is intentionally added.

Minnesota: prohibits the intentional addition of PFAS to food packaging.

New Jersey: Passed recycled content laws requiring at least 10% recycled content in rigid plastic containers, 15% in plastic beverage containers, and 20% in disposable plastic tote bags. Prohibits the use of polystyrene packaging pellets.

Rhode Island: banned single-use plastic checkout bags statewide.

Washington State: Bans bags, sleeves, bowls, flatware (e.g., plates and trays), open-top containers, and sealed containers (e.g., flip-top containers) containing fluoridated and hydrofluorocarbon substances. A series of bills focusing on Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) and further bans have also emerged.

FLORIDA: S 0498 The bill would have restricted local governments from regulating secondary containers, packaging materials, single-use plastic bags, and polystyrene products (did not pass).

Hawaii: HB 1585 would prohibit state agencies from purchasing or using polystyrene food service containers (pending).

Illinois: HB 4448 A bill that would prohibit a store or food service business from offering or selling single-use plastic bags, and also prohibit grocery stores from offering or selling single-use paper bags (pending consideration).

Kansas: HB 1446 would have prohibited cities and counties from regulating plastic and other containers (vetoed).

Maryland: HB 168 would require manufacturers of certain plastic products to pay an annual fee and set minimum requirements for post-consumer recycled content (pending).

Massachusetts: S 570 would ban single-use plastic bags and food service utensils, regulate the use of plastic bottles, explore extended producer responsibility for packaging, and encourage composting (replaced by new draft S2830).

New York: S 8361 would prohibit state agencies and offices from purchasing single-use plastic water bottles (pending).

Meanwhile, amid escalating legal action against plastics, the city of Baltimore has followed New York State's lead and sued Pepsi, Coca-Cola, Frito-Lay, and plastics manufacturing companies, saying they “played a significant role” in creating the plastic pollution crisis.

Researchers led by Professor Takuzo Aida of the Center for Advanced Materials Science (CEMS) at the RIKEN Research Institute in Saitama, Japan, have developed a durable plastic that does not contribute to microplastic pollution in the ocean. 

The new material is as strong and biodegradable as traditional plastics, but what makes it special is that it breaks down in seawater. As a result, the new plastic is expected to help reduce harmful microplastic pollution that accumulates in the oceans and soil and eventually enters the food chain. The results of the experiment were published Nov. 22 in the journal Science.

Scientists have been working to develop safe and sustainable materials to replace traditional plastics, which are unsustainable and harmful to the environment. While some recyclable and biodegradable plastics already exist, a major problem remains.

Currently biodegradable plastics like polylactic acid (PLA) often find their way into the oceans, where they cannot degrade because they are insoluble in water. As a result, microplastics (pieces of plastic smaller than 5 millimeters) are harming aquatic life and entering the food chain, including our bodies. 

In their new study, Aida and her team addressed this problem using supramolecular plastics, which are polymers that link structures together through reversible interactions. The new plastic is made by combining two ionic monomers that form cross-linked salt bridges, which give the material its strength and flexibility. In preliminary tests, one of the monomers was sodium hexametaphosphate, a common food additive, and the other was a monomer of several guanidinium salt cations. Both monomers are metabolized by bacteria, ensuring that the plastic is biodegradable when broken down into its constituent parts. 

Key Breakthrough: Salt Bridge Structures and Controlled Degradation

Aida said, “It has long been assumed that the reversibility of chemical bonds in supramolecular plastics would make them fragile and unstable, but the new material we have developed is just the opposite.” In this new material, the salt-bridge structure is irreversible unless exposed to an electrolyte environment like that contained in seawater. The key discovery lies in how to make these selectively irreversible cross-linked structures. 

As with oil and water, the researchers mixed the two monomers in water and observed the appearance of two separate liquids. One liquid was thick and viscous and contained cross-linked salt bridges that form important structures, while the other was watery and contained salt ions. For example, when sodium hexametaphosphate and alkyl diguanide sulfates are used, the sodium sulfate salt is drained into the aqueous layer. The final plastic, alkyl SP, is made by drying the remaining material from the thick viscous liquid layer. 

The “desalination” step proved to be critical; without it, the final dried material would be a fragile crystal that could not be used. By re-salting the plastic in brine, the cross-linked structure is rapidly deconstructed and completely disintegrated within a few hours. Thus, having created a plastic that is strong and durable and still dissolves under certain conditions, the researchers next tested the qualities of the plastic. 

Key discovery: reshaping supramolecular polymers

The new plastic is non-toxic and non-flammable - meaning no carbon dioxide emissions - and can be reshaped at temperatures above 120°C like other thermoplastics. By testing different types of guanidinium sulfate, the team was able to create plastics with varying hardness and tensile strength, properties that are comparable to or even better than traditional plastics. This means that this new type of plastic can be customized on demand; hard, abrasion-resistant plastics, rubbery silicone-like plastics, plastics with high load-bearing capacity, or low-tensile flexible plastics are all possible. The researchers have also created ocean-degradable plastics using polysaccharides that can form cross-linked salt bridges with guanidine monomers. Such plastics could be used for 3D printing as well as medical or health-related applications.

A new family of plastics: recycling and the environment at the same time

Finally, the researchers investigated the recyclability and biodegradability of the new plastic. After initially dissolving the new plastic in salt water, they were able to recover 91% of the sodium hexametaphosphate and 82% of the guanidine in powder form, suggesting that the recycling process is easy and efficient. In soil, the new plastic flakes degraded completely in 10 days, acting as a fertilizer to provide phosphorus and nitrogen to the soil. 

Says Aida, “With this new material, we have created a new family of plastics that are strong, stable, recyclable, multifunctional and, importantly, do not produce microplastics.”

Dec. 10 (Bloomberg) -- Emirates Biotech has selected Sulzer of Switzerland as the technology provider for its upcoming polylactic acid (PLA) production plant in the UAE. 

The plant, with a total investment of about $800 million (RMB 5.8 billion), will be built in two phases, each with a capacity of 80,000 tons per year, for a total capacity of 160,000 tons per year. Once completed, it will be one of the largest PLA production facilities in the world. The bioplastic material, which supports regional and global efforts to combat plastic pollution and climate change, is enough to replace about 3.2 billion plastic bottles and will reduce carbon dioxide emissions by more than 300,000 tons per year.

Emirates Biotech's world-class PLA production facility in the UAE

PLA offers a sustainable alternative to traditional plastics. It is used in a wide range of applications such as packaging and disposable utensils, helping to reduce global dependence on single-use plastics. UAE Biotech will utilize Sulzer's patented PLA technology to manage all production steps, including propylene glycol ester production, purification and polymerization, from a single location. The plant will also produce high-quality PLA bioplastics on a large scale using plant-based feedstocks, making the Middle East a key player in the bioplastics industry.

Sustainable alternatives to traditional plastics

With more than two centuries of industry experience and a proven track record in bioplastics, Sulzer's patented PLA technology is already in use in most PLA plants worldwide. This new development reinforces Sulzer's commitment to support global industry in adopting circular manufacturing and building more prosperous and sustainable societies. 

Located in the United Arab Emirates, construction of the plant will begin in 2025 and is expected to be operational by early 2028. The plant will use lactic acid (LA) as its feedstock for PLA production, providing a low-carbon footprint and biodegradable alternative to traditional plastics, further contributing to the circular economy.

Shaikh Suhail Ali Saeed Rashed Al-Maktoum, a major shareholder in UAE Biotech, commented, “This project highlights our commitment to sustainable development and economic diversification. By utilizing innovative technologies and strategic partnerships, we aim to establish the UAE as a global leader in the production of environmentally friendly materials.” 

Promoting the global adoption of biopolymers

Marc Verbruggen, Chief Executive Officer of UMC Biotech, said, “Our partnership with Sulzer marks an important milestone in our journey to establish a world-class PLA production facility. Sulzer's expertise and innovative solutions are critical to realizing our vision of leading the biopolymer industry while contributing to a more sustainable future.” Marc Verbruggen is the former CEO of NatureWorks (between 2008 and 2017). 

“We are proud to partner with Sulzer on this groundbreaking project.” Dorus Everwijn, president of GBI, a major shareholder in Emirates Biotech, added, “Sulzer's advanced technology and extensive experience in the PLA industry will support the development of a best-in-class PLA production facility that will set new benchmarks.” Emirates Biotech was formerly known as Gulf Biopolyers Industries. 

Tim Schulten, division president of Chemtech, said, “We are excited to be working with UAE Biotech on this groundbreaking project. By bringing our advanced PLA production technology to the UAE, we are supporting the region's transition to more sustainable materials and contributing to a greener future.”

Emmanuel Rapendy, Global Head of Polymers and Crystallization at Sulzer Chem-Tech, continued: “This project is extremely important because environmental challenges highlight the need for global adoption of biopolymers. In addition, it emphasizes our ethos of tackling sustainability from the ground up. Not only do we utilize our technology to achieve cleaner processes and end products, but we also ensure that our equipment and systems are very efficient, thereby limiting the energy input required for operations.” 

As global demand for PLA continues to rise due to environmental concerns and the shift to sustainable materials, the plant will position the Middle East as a key player in the bioplastics industry, supporting regional and global efforts to combat plastic pollution.

Am cor, a global packaging solutions provider, recently entered into a strategic partnership agreement with Colon Industries of Korea to develop and commercialize more sustainable polyester materials for use in Aramco's flexible packaging business. The collaboration will focus on research and development of new technologies related to chemically recycled PET (carpet) and polyethylene glycol furandicarboxylate (PEF) materials. 

Colon is developing an advanced recycling process to convert post-consumer bottles, fibers and flexible packaging into new PET.

The PEF material, on the other hand, is a PET-like polyester structure derived from 100% sustainable biomass, which not only provides better product protection, but also reduces the carbon footprint. This supports Aramco's commitment to integrate 30% post-consumer recycled materials into its product portfolio by 2030 and to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.

About Am cor

Am cor is a global leader in the development and production of responsible packaging solutions for a wide range of materials for food, beverage, pharmaceutical, medical, home and personal care, and other products.Am cor works with leading companies around the world to protect products, differentiate brands and improve supply chains. The company offers a range of innovative, differentiated flexible and rigid packaging, specialty cartons, closures and services. The company is focused on manufacturing packaging that is increasingly recyclable, reusable, lighter in weight and made with an increasing number of recycled content. In fiscal 2024, 41,000 Am cor employees operated in 212 locations in 40 countries, generating annual sales of $13.6 billion. 

About Colon Industries

Founded in 1957, Colon Industrial Co., Ltd. is a Korean chemical company with a strong presence in the global marketplace. In addition to petrochemical resins, the company offers a range of market-leading products, including industrial specialty materials such as tire cord and amid fibers, generating more than $3.5 billion in revenue annually. Committed to meeting the needs of its global customers with more sustainable business solutions, Colon Industries continues to accelerate the development of breakthrough technologies

On December 9, Restriction announced that it has teamed up again with global building materials distributor Selena Group Poland to launch an innovative product, Ty-tan Professional® bricklaying adhesive, which is made with Restriction's bio-based MDI (methamphetamine dissociate) ( Desmond®CQ MB), a plant-based raw material certified to the ISCC Plus standard and with a carbon footprint that is up to 90% lower than that of traditional cement mortars, with a significantly reduced environmental impact. 

The product can be used with high precision with various types of blocks such as ceramic, silicate, and ACC to achieve higher yields, and cures twice as fast as conventional cement mortar, improving the efficiency of building construction. It can also be used in a range of operating temperatures from -5°C to +30°C, helping to minimize temperature-induced downtime.

The product is the third in a series of collaborative product launches between Selena and Costco. Further deepening their collaboration in 2023, the two companies are committed to manufacturing a range of more sustainable polyurethane (PU) foams to enhance building insulation, previously used as an enhancement to Selena's Ultra Fast 70 one-component foam, primarily for window and door installations. 

MDI, a key raw material in the manufacture of polyurethane, is widely used in automotive parts, furniture and bedding, thermal insulation materials for homes and refrigerators, elastic fibers, and various adhesive materials. The major global manufacturers include Anhui Chemical, BASF, Costco, Huntsman, Dow Chemical, Suit Chemicals of Japan, and To soh of Japan. Among them, Anhui Chemical has the world's largest MDI capacity of 3.5 million tons/year, with a market share of over 30%. Followed by BASF (1.89 million tons/year), Contrast (1.77 million tons/year), both MDI capacity accounted for more than 15%. 

With the increasing global demand for sustainable solutions, bio-based MDI, as an alternative to traditional petrochemical MDI, has become a key step in reducing the carbon footprint of polyurethane production, and companies, including BASF, Restriction, Huang Chemical, LANXESS, and Anhui Chemical, have been laying out bio-based MDI and TPU products. 

Among them, BASF produced the first biomass-balanced MDI at its plant in Yeow, South Korea, on Oct. 12, 2023, and promoted the use of bio-based MDI in synthetic leather and polyurethane cold storage sandwich panels in cooperation with Kawasaki Chemical and MasterCard in January and November this year, respectively. 

On November 6 last year, Huang Group signed a contract with Cos-tron to develop a low-carbon range of polyurethane products focusing on Control's MDI produced based on mass balance methods. 

Due to the wide range of MDI applications and the expansion of the bio-based polyurethane industry, bio-based MDI, as the key raw material of bio-based polyurethane, has become an inevitable trend of greening and low-carbon development under the dual-carbon background, and the scale of the future bio-based MDI market will gradually expand.

Starbucks changed the straw material from petroleum-based plastic to paper straws in January 2020, but decided to replace them with bioplastic straws due to feedback from some customers that the straws “tend to soften with prolonged use,” “affecting the taste of the drink,” and other issues. 

On December 6, Starbucks Coffee Japan announced that from January 2025, it will change the material of straws offered in stores from paper to bio-based plastic. This is another adjustment after a five-year hiatus following the complete switch to paper straws in 2020.

The first batch of bioplastic straws will be launched at 32 stores in Okinawa Prefecture on January 23, 2025, and will be extended to approximately 2,000 stores throughout Japan after March. The new straws will be replaced with 6-millimeter-diameter straws for regular drinks such as iced coffee and Frappuccino, and the 10-millimeter-diameter thicker straws for seasonal Frappuccino are scheduled to be replaced around April.

The raw material used for the straws comes from Kaneka's bioplastic Green Planet®, which is made from vegetable oils and other ingredients, and can achieve 99% biomass content. The new straws are lighter in weight than paper straws and are expected to reduce waste generated in stores by approximately 50%. The bioplastic is able to decompose into inorganic materials in the presence of microorganisms in seawater or soil, resulting in a low environmental impact.

Jongyeon Chemical Green Planet™ is PHBH for the production of straws, shopping bags, cutlery and disposable coffee capsules. According to the company's official information, its annual production capacity will reach 20,000 tons in 2024, with hundreds of thousands of tons of future commercial potential.

On December 10, 2024, the European Association for Bioplastics (EUBP) published global bioplastics data. Bioplastics currently account for approximately 0.5% of the nearly 414 million tons of plastics produced annually. 

1. Significantly reduced future expectations

In terms of production capacity, the global capacity of bioplastics (including bio-based materials and biodegradable plastics) continues to grow, and the global bioplastics capacity is forecasted to be 2.47 million tons in 2024, and will grow to 5.73 million tons in 2029.

However, compared to the previous year's data, the future expectations have been cut significantly: EUBP had predicted in December 2023 that the global bioplastics production capacity would be 2.67 million tons in 2024 and would grow to 7.43 million tons in 2028. In fact, EUBP keeps adjusting its future forecasts and even revising historical data based on current policies and markets.

2, PLA and PHA market prospects are the best

Bioplastic alternatives are suitable for almost all traditional plastic materials and corresponding applications. The data shows that due to the strong development of bio-based and biodegradable polymers, bioplastics production capacity will continue to increase significantly over the next five years, i.e., by 2029, with poly(lactic acid) (PLA, with a share of 42.3% or 2.42 million tons), polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA, with a share of 17.0% or 0.97 million tons), bio-based polyethylene (PE, with a share of 8.9% or 0.51 million tons), and bio-based polypropylene ( PP, accounting for 8.5% or 490,000 tons).

3. Packaging remains the largest market segment for bioplastics

Bioplastics are increasingly used in a wide range of applications, from packaging and fibers to consumer, automotive, and agricultural products. Packaging remains the largest segment for bioplastics, accounting for 45% (1.12 million tons) of the total bioplastics market in 2024. 

4, 2024 bioplastics production of 1.44 million tons, capacity utilization rate of nearly 60%

In terms of production, bioplastics production in 2024 was 1.44 million tons, up slightly from 1.37 million tons in 2023.

In terms of capacity utilization, the average utilization rate in 2024 is 58% (1.44 million tons of production versus 2.47 million tons of capacity), although some components vary widely from polymer to polymer, ranging from 35% to 100%.

Hasso von Pogrell, Managing Director of EUBP, concludes, “Whether actual production can come any closer to existing capacity will depend largely on the specific interpretation of the recent regulation (PPWR), as well as other future legislation for the European plastics market.”

Polylactic acid (PLA), as a typical polymer material derived from renewable raw materials (starch), is gradually developing into a basic bulk material necessary for society. At the same time, the post-processing of used PLA materials has attracted attention. Although PLA can be degraded in nature, the process usually requires a long time and specific degradation conditions, and the degradation products are carbon dioxide and water, which cannot be directly and rapidly recycled, and is essentially a carbon emission process and a waste of resources. The recycling of PLA by means of chemical recycling provides an effective solution for the reprocessing of waste PLA. Most of the current research is to convert waste PLA to alkyl lactate, but cycling through this process to obtain high molecular weight PLA materials requires hydrolysis of alkyl lactate into lactic acid, prepolymerization into oligomers, dimerization into propyl cross esters and then polymerization to obtain PLA, which are feasible but costly and inefficient (shown in Figure 1). Therefore, realizing the direct conversion of waste PLA materials into new PLA materials has important research value and application prospects.

Figure 1 Polylactic acid cycling strategy

The Catalytic Polymerization and Engineering Research Group led by Qinggang Wang at the Qingdao Institute of Energy, China, has developed a new upcycling strategy of polymer degradation and re-polymerization (“DE-RE polymerization” strategy) to successfully realize the recycling process from PLA waste to new PLA materials in a “polymer-to-polymer” manner (shown in Fig. 2). A new upcycling strategy (“DE-RE polymerization” strategy) has been developed by the Catalytic Polymerization and Engineering Research Group, led by a researcher from the Catalytic Polymerization and Engineering Research Group. 

The mild reaction conditions and few side reactions of this strategy reduce the consumption of raw materials for the complete reproduction of PLA and maximize the recycling efficiency of PLA. During the re-polymerization process, final materials with different properties can be obtained by adding different types of monomers. The results provide a new solution idea for the recycling of PLA and promote the development of a sustainable society. 

In addition, this strategy is not only effective in chemical recycling, but also promising in polymer modification and synthesis. 

Fig. 2 Chemical recycling of PLA waste plastics

On November 29, Professor Deng Hongbing's team from Wuhan University's School of Resource and Environmental Sciences and Professor Zhou Xue's team from Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST) joined hands to make an important breakthrough in scientific research, successfully developing a new type of all-biomass fiber sponge that is reusable and biodegradable. The relevant research results have been published in the international academic journal “Science Advances”.

Figure 1, Sustainable self-assembled supramolecular biomass fiber foam for microplastic removal. (A) Pathway for the preparation of self-assembled supramolecular biomass foams without cross-linking of cellulose and β-chitin. (B) Due to the abundance of reactive functional groups, the biomass fiber foam removes microplastics through multilevel interactions (physical interception, electrostatic adsorption, and multiple intermolecular interactions). 

Wuyang Wu, Postdoctoral Fellow, School of Resource and Environmental Sciences, Wuhan University: Our research found that the crystalline form of chitin from squid bone is different from that of lobster shell chitin, which has higher reactivity and is easier to be made into sponges that can adsorb more microplastics. China's huge squid catch, a large number of squid bone as waste can be used as raw material for chitin extraction, making more efficient all-biological microplastic adsorption sponge. 

The sponge, made from chitin extracted from discarded squid bones and cotton, has a porous structure and rich surface functional groups that excel in treating microplastic contamination in water. The research team evaluated the material's performance using samples from four actual water sources: irrigation water, lake water, seawater, and pond water, and found that the material's adsorption capacity was largely unaffected by inorganic particles, heavy metals, organic pollutants, and microorganisms in the water, determining its stability in real-world waters. The study showed that this new all-biomass fiber sponge removed 99.8% of microplastics from water in the first adsorption cycle and maintained over 95% removal after five cycles, demonstrating its good reusability.

Microplastic pollution has become a global environmental challenge, posing a serious threat to aquatic ecosystems and human health. The emergence of this new all-biomass fiber sponge is undoubtedly a highlight in the field of environmentally friendly materials. 

It is worth mentioning that the sponge not only has excellent adsorption performance, but also has the characteristics of reusable and biodegradable. After adsorption saturation, the sponge can be easily desorbed and regenerated through a specific treatment process, and can be recycled many times, greatly reducing treatment costs and resource consumption. When the sponge reaches the limit of its service life, it can be gradually biodegraded in the natural environment, not like the traditional adsorbent material that leaves secondary pollution hidden danger, truly realizing the environmental friendliness of the whole process from use to disposal. 

Prof. Deng Hongbing said that biomass materials are an effective and economical solution to the complex problem of microplastic pollution in water, and that this all-biomass fiber sponge is simple to prepare, has the potential for large-scale production, and is expected to be applied to real-life large-scale water treatment or within household water purifiers in the near future. Prof. Zhou Xue also mentioned that inter-university teamwork played a key role in this research, as experts and researchers from different disciplinary backgrounds collaborated with each other and complemented each other's strengths to make this comprehensive and technically challenging research go forward smoothly.