Aida said the new material is as strong as petroleum-based plastics but breaks down into its original components when exposed to salt. Those components can then be further processed by naturally occurring bacteria, thereby avoiding generating microplastics that can harm aquatic life and enter the food chain.
The pace at which a takeaway container degrades from the salty food may be more than slow enough for it to not matter for that use case — especially if the container uses a coating.