Shrimp shells could provide biodegradable plastic alternative

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For many people "plastic" it means pollution, because it's a material created from oil and take much time to degrade.

Researchers at Harvard’s Wyss Institute have introduced a new bioplastic isolated from shrimp shells. It’s made from chitosan, a form of chitin. This material is cheap and easy to manufacture for a new method that retains strong mechanical properties of chitosan. The researchers say can be used to make large objects with complex shapes. Once unusable this breaks down into weeks and even can be useful for plants.

I think that if this is done can bring something very good and very bad. The first is that pollution produced from plastics will be reduced, also the oil consumption, as well as this material "favour the plants" according to the researchers say. But the downside is that this will mean a massive fishing of this animal, which result in a progressive extinction of this, and depending how fished this, imply a destruction of ecosystems in which it is located.