Team:Aix-Marseille/Project/Description
Don't you ever step on a sticky chewing-gum ?!
Nowadays, chewing gum is the second urban pollutant after cigarette butts. To clean chewing gum, specific engines are used but they are heavy and expensive. The time required for its use is long and they need a large quantity of water. Besides economical aspects, chewing gums have an environmental impact. They are dangerous for the wildlife such as birds. Indeed, believing that it is bread, they eat chewing gums and choke. Regarding these alarming facts, we have decided to create a new environmentally- responsible way to sanitize our streets.
Chewing gum pollution is a real problem. From sidewalks to under your desk at school, chewing gums are everywhere!
Do you know ?
Dangerous for life and for the environment !
Chewing gum is made from synthetic plastics called polymers. They do not biodegrade and they cause several problems :
- Once thrown on the sidewalk, it takes 5 years to be degraded.
- Chewing gums are dangerous for animals such as birds. They eat its and choke and then die. The xylitol, one of the chewing gum compound used in sugar free gums, is toxic for dogs.
- Chewing gum is a worldwide problem. Cities spend millions of dollars per year to clean it.
- A large quantity of water is wasted to clean gum. Moreover, chemical solutions used in the cleaning process are rinsed off and go directly into the ocean. Fishes consume all this pollution and accumulates toxins overtime.
- When we eat fishes, polymers are reintroduced into the food chain.
