A company has developed fully biodegradable substitutes for existing oil-based plastics.

Teysha Technologies says its new polymer technology could significantly reduce plastic pollution and replace many traditional products used in the automotive and medical industries.

Its bio-plastic, called AggiePol, is derived from sustainable, natural feedstocks such as starches and agricultural waste.

The firm says it can be physically, mechanically and chemically tweaked for different applications – not only that, its degradation rate can also be tuned to minimise the environmental impact of plastic products after the end of their useful lifetime.

Head of Research at Teysha Technologies, Dr Ashlee Jahnke, said: “At Teysha, we have developed a system where the main mechanism of polymer degradation is water-driven.

“This allows for breakdown in any environment containing sufficient moisture and not necessarily requiring microbial activity or industrial composting conditions.”