Sustainable Soluble Laundry Bag for Healthcare Hygiene and Staff Safety

新型冠状病毒带来了新的挑战，在某些情况下导致安全与可持续性之间的冲突。一次性个人防护装备（PPE）就是其中之一。大多数一次性PPE是由塑料制成的。这在疫情期间为医护人员提供了至关重要的安全保障，但也带来了可持续性问题--所有这些塑料PPE都对地球有害。Xampla正在开发一种由植物蛋白质制成的创新的、完全天然的塑料替代品。我们已经确定了一个特定的PPE应用，我们的材料可以使医疗保健提供者既保持其员工的安全，又保护地球。每天，NHS和其他地方的数千名医护人员使用可溶性洗衣袋。他们在工作时脱下受污染的衣服，密封在塑料袋里。然后他们洗了自己，换上他们的家居服。这可以保证他们的家人的安全，然后医院或护理之家安全地处理装有受污染衣服的塑料袋，这些塑料袋进入洗衣机。在洗涤过程中，袋子溶解，干净的衣服从机器里出来。这是一个很好的应用，但有一个问题。这些可溶性或溶解性塑料袋是由污染性化石燃料塑料制成的。塑料被冲下下水道，可以到达环境，导致海洋塑料污染问题。Xampla的解决方案是一种可溶性袋，为医护人员提供相同的卫生和安全性，但仅由植物制成。它会溶解并被冲走，但这种完全天然的材料可以被环境中的微生物吃掉，而不会造成任何伤害。这是应对新型冠状病毒肺炎（COVID-19，即2019冠状病毒病）带来的重大挑战的一个巧妙解决方案。该项目旨在开发，原型和试验创新，可持续的可溶性洗衣袋，用于医疗卫生和医疗保健人员的安全。

Covid-19 has created new challenges which in some cases leads to conflicts between safety and sustainability. Single use Personal Protection Equipment (PPE) is one of those cases. Most single-use PPE is made from plastic. This provides vital safety to healthcare workers during the pandemic, but is creating a sustainability problem -- all this plastic PPE is bad for the planet.Xampla is developing an innovative, entirely natural replacement for plastic, made from plant protein. We've identified a specific PPE application where our materials can enable healthcare providers both to keep their staff safe and to protect the planet. Every day, thousands of healthcare workers in the NHS and elsewhere use soluble laundry bags. They remove their contaminated clothes at work and seal inside a plastic bag. Then they wash themselves, and change into their home clothes. This keeps their families safe, and the hospital or care home then safely handles the plastic bags containing the contaminated clothes, which go into a washing machine. In the wash, the bags dissolve, and clean clothes come out out of the machine.This is a great application, but there's a problem. These soluble, or dissolving, plastic bags are made from polluting fossil fuel plastic. The plastic is washed down the drain and can reach the environment, contributing to the ocean plastic pollution problem. Xampla's solution is a soluble bag that offers the same hygiene and safety for the healthcare workers, but is made only from plants. It dissolves and washes away, but the completely natural material can be eaten by microbes in the environment with no harm at all.It's a neat solution to a major challenge created by Covid-19\. This project aims to develop, prototype and trial innovative, sustainable soluble laundry bags for healthcare hygiene and healthcare staff safety.