Latest News Archive

Please select Category, Year, and then Month to display items

Research into biodegradable polymers helps fight plastic pollution

02 September 2024 | Story André Damons | Photo Supplied

Dr Puseletso Mofokeng — Dr Julia Puseletso Mofokeng, from the UFS’s Department of Chemistry, is doing research into biodegradable polymers for application in disposable product packaging.

A researcher from the University of the Free State (UFS) is contributing to the fight against plastic pollution through her research into biodegradable polymers – large, chain-like molecules – as a more environmentally friendly alternative to petroleum-based plastics.

Plastic pollution is a global environmental problem, with 19 to 23 million tonnes of plastic waste leaked into aquatic ecosystems every year.

Dr Julia Puseletso Mofokeng, Senior Lecturer and Researcher in the UFS Department of Chemistry, hopes her research into how biodegradable polymers can be used in disposable product packaging can influence the industry and policymakers to enforce the use of biopolymers or biodegradable polymers in disposable products. This would help reduce plastic waste and boost environment-conservation efforts.

The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) describes plastic waste as a serious environmental problem – humans produce about 400 million tonnes of plastic waste every year. Approximately 36% of all plastics produced are used in packaging, including single-use plastic products for food and beverage containers, approximately 85% of which ends up in landfills or as unregulated waste.

Researching biodegradable polymers

Dr Mofokeng’s desire to solve the waste problem in her community of Bophelong village in Qwaqwa, Free State – where community members dumped and burned all sorts of waste, including plastics – inspired her towards her field of research.

Today, her research is aimed at managing plastic waste to combat environmental and atmospheric pollution (from incineration), conserve energy, and improve water quality, including ensuring safe drinking water.

High levels of plastic waste have led to increased research into and development of biodegradable polymers as an alternative to non-biodegradable materials for short-shelf-life goods (such as packaging for fresh fruit and vegetables).

Biopolymers or biodegradable polymers, explains Dr Mofokeng, are derived from renewable resources including, but not limited to, vegetable oils, starches and animal fats. They can therefore be easily disposed of after use without harming the environment.

“My research is based on the preparation and characterisation of completely biodegradable polymers, their blends, and composites or nanocomposites filled with unmodified or modified inorganic fillers, natural fibres, as well as synthesised carbonaceous materials,” she says.

Such materials are developed for various applications, including packaging, electromagnetic interference shielding (blocking unwanted signals), and the removal of heavy metals and other contaminants from water bodies.

“To achieve these aims, I and my small research group are preparing completely biodegradable polymer blends.”

This involves adjusting their morphology (structure) and some of their properties (thermal, thermomechanical, mechanical, and flame retardancy) to match those of petroleum-based polymers in their replacement for disposable products; by reinforcing with natural fibres, and minerals.

Biodegradable polymers can degrade within a few days to a few years depending on their source, type, and biodegradation method used, while petroleum-based polymers can exist for hundreds to thousands of years without degrading. Moreover, because biodegradable polymers are produced from natural resources, their biodegradation mainly produces carbon dioxide, water, and other non-toxic byproducts, Dr Mofokeng adds.

“Biodegradable polymers can degrade by themselves under natural environmental conditions – in one to three years – or may require human intervention to degrade where composts are prepared or conditions are controlled in order to degrade the polymers. The latter two being the fastest, where it could take days to months. In my previous research project [we] kept polylactic acid filled with short sisal fibre in plain water at 80℃, and all the tested samples degraded within 10 days.”

She and a PhD student are conducting an ongoing experiment involving three different biodegradable polymer systems exposed to different conditions outside and under soil, measuring the rate of biodegradation by mimicking the environmental conditions found in dumping sites and landfills.

Signs of biodegradation on the samples showed clearly after 14 months, with cracks, surface erosion, and a decrease in the initial weighed mass, suggesting that the polymers could be completely degraded within two to three years.

Closer to goal

Dr Mofokeng, who has been a National Research Foundation (NRF) Y2-rated researcher since 2021, says since most food outlets and restaurants in South Africa have already started using paper- and bio-based polymer materials in cutlery, straws, and takeaway packaging, the country seems to be closer to its goal of using biodegradable polymers for disposable packaging.

The UFS, too, is aiming to phase out the use of plastic bottles in the next three to five years. This will be done by installing filtered water machines in all its buildings.

“We are now left with policymakers to enforce strict laws governing production; and retail industries to use biopolymers or biodegradable polymers in disposable packaging materials,” she says.

New research

Dr Mofokeng and her group’s research is in line with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), including ensuring good health and wellbeing (SDG3), providing clean water and sanitation (SDG6), forging sustainable cities and communities (SDG11), establishing sustainable consumption and production patterns (SDG12), and protecting life below water (SDG14).

She has been researching polymers for almost two decades, and remains passionate about her research field and educating communities. Her new research project, in collaboration with colleagues from her department, targets the removal of heavy metals and other contaminants from groundwater. Testing and water treatment is set to take place in different regions in Qwaqwa, specifically among households that collect drinking and cooking water from boreholes.

Dr Mofokeng’s research group was established in 2016 with one honours and two master’s students. She has since supervised nine honours, seven master’s and one PhD student.

She also recently established international research collaborations with the Libyan Advanced Center for Chemical Analysis and the Faculty of Technology at the University of Banja Luka in Serbia.

News Archive

The failure of the law

2004-06-04

Written by Lacea Loader

- Call for the protection of consumers’ and tax payers rights against corporate companies

An expert in commercial law has called for reforms to the Companies Act to protect the rights of consumers and investors.

“Consumers and tax payers are lulled into thinking the law protects them when it definitely does not,” said Prof Dines Gihwala this week during his inaugural lecture at the University of the Free State’s (UFS).

Prof Gihwala, vice-chairperson of the UFS Council, was inaugurated as extraordinary professor in commercial law at the UFS’s Faculty of Law.

He said that consumers, tax payers and shareholders think they can look to the law for an effective curb on the enormous power for ill that big business wields.

“Once the public is involved, the activities of big business must be controlled and regulated. It is the responsibility of the law to oversee and supervise such control and regulation,” said Prof Gihwala.

He said that, when undesirable consequences occur despite laws enacted specifically to prevent such results, it must be fair to suggest that the law has failed.

“The actual perpetrators of the undesirable behaviour seldom pay for it in any sense, not even when criminal conduct is involved. If directors of companies are criminally charged and convicted, the penalty is invariably a fine imposed on the company. So, ironically, it is the money of tax payers that is spent on investigating criminal conduct, formulating charges and ultimately prosecuting the culprits involved in corporate malpractice,” said Prof Gihwala.

According to Prof Gihwala the law continuously fails to hold companies meaningfully accountable to good and honest business values.

“Insider trading is a crime and, although legislation was introduced in 1998 to curb it, not a single successful criminal prosecution has taken place. While the law appears to be offering the public protection against unacceptable business behaviour, it does no such thing – the law cannot act as a deterrent if it is inadequate or not being enforced,” he said.

The government believed it was important to facilitate access to the country’s economic resources by those who had been denied it in the past. The Broad Based Economic Empowerment Act of 2003 (BBEE), is legislation to do just that. “We should be asking ourselves whether it is really possible for an individual, handicapped by the inequities of the past, to compete in the real business world even though the BBEE Act is now part of the law?,” said Prof Gihwala.

Prof Gihwala said that judges prefer to follow precedent instead of taking bold initiative. “Following precedent is safe at a personal level. To do so will elicit no outcry of disapproval and one’s professional reputation is protected. The law needs to evolve and it is the responsibility of the judiciary to see that it happens in an orderly fashion. Courts often take the easy way out, and when the opportunity to be bold and creative presents itself, it is ignored,” he said.

“Perhaps we are expecting too much from the courts. If changes are to be made to the level of protection to the investing public by the law, Parliament must play its proper role. It is desirable for Parliament to be proactive. Those tasked with the responsibility of rewriting our Companies Act should be bold and imaginative. They should remove once and for all those parts of our common law which frustrate the ideals of our Constitution, and in particular those which conflict with the principles of the BBEE Act,” said Prof Gihwala.

According to Prof Gihwala, the following reforms are necessary:

• establishing a unit that is part of the office of the Registrar of Companies to bolster a whole inspectorate in regard to companies’ affairs;
• companies who are liable to pay a fine or fines, should have the right to take action to recover that fine from those responsible for the conduct;
• and serious transgression of the law should allow for imprisonment only – there should be no room for the payment of fines.

Prof Gihwala ended the lecture by saying: “If the opportunity to re-work the Companies Act is not grabbed with both hands, we will witness yet another failure in the law. Even more people will come to believe that the law is stupid and that it has made fools of them. And that would be the worst possible news in our developing democracy, where we are struggling to ensure that the Rule of Law prevails and that every one of us has respect for the law”.

Back

Economic and Management Sciences

Education

Health Sciences

The Humanities

Law

Natural and Agricultural Sciences

Theology and Religion

Open Distance Learning

Business School

We use cookies to make interactions with our websites and services easy and meaningful. To better understand how they are used, read more about the UFS cookie policy. By continuing to use this site you are giving us your consent to do this.

Accept