Resins made of insect wings

Dutch designer Aagje Hoekstra has introduced a new invention: material made from the beetle's shell, which promises to replace traditional plastics that harm the environment.

Image: treehugger.com

According to Grist, the expert melted the dead beetle's shell in the wild to create a decomposable 'insect resin' , called coleoptera , and form jewelry, lamps. In order to cover the 10 cm ² insect plank, Hoekstra removed the bark of about 2,500 beetles, which contained chitin natural resin .

He then applied the chemical process to convert chitin into chitosan with a solid structure. The Dutch inventor hopes that future insects can reduce the habit of using traditional plastics made from petroleum.

In the United Kingdom alone, about 270,000 tonnes of environmentally-friendly plastic waste is discharged annually, equivalent to 15 million plastic bottles a day. Meanwhile, beetles usually live only 3 to 4 months after spawning and their bodies are also decayed naturally if not used as bioplastics.