Would you drive this car? Toyota biodegradable i-Unit
No, that's not the new Big Brother diary room chair, though you'd be forgiven for thinking so. It's actually the latest concept car from Toyota, which is being presented as an example of what you can do with biodegradable plastics.
The Toyota i-unit concept car is on display at the Science Museum's current exhibition, Plasticity, about the material we've come to rely so heavily on in the past century, and that's a little bit too durable for its own good when it comes to disposal.
Love it or loathe it, plastic has a multitude of uses, and the exhibition reminds us of some shocking statistics that are prompting scientists to come up with more ways to recycle it: we currently consume nearly 100 million tonnes of the stuff, and only around 7% is recycled. A long-awaited plastics recycling plant is set to open in Essex this December, capable of recycling 35,000 tonnes of plastic a year; a massive improvement on the existing figure!
