The Recycling And Disposal,

of electronic waste is a ever growing problem,

tech start-up Pentaform has a unique idea to help solve the problem,

make the housing of an electronic product and its circuit board from a type of biodegradable and fully water-soluble plastic,

the outer container is given a thin waterproof coating on the outside to protect it from moisture, but when its housing is opened and the whole thing is submerged in water, it completely dissolves in six to eight hours,

leaving all of the electrical bits to be collected and recycled, Pentaform co-founders Samuel Wangsaputra and Joon Sang Lee came up with Aquafade out of frustration with both e-waste and biodegradable plastics, Wangsaputra's inspiration for Aquafade came from an everyday source: dishwasher detergent pods. Aquafade is made from the same type of synthetic polymer, called polyvinyl alcohol (PVOH), but used in bulk rather than as a thin film, Pentaform's vision for Aquafade is to both license the material to other companies and to release their own products, they have a head start on the product, having previously designed and released a device called the Abacus computer that they now intend to update with Aquafade in place of recycled ABS plastic, what a neat idea to solve what is becoming a bigger problem every year.