Plastics play important roles in
modern life and currently the
development of plastic recycling is highly demanding and challenging.
To relieve this dilemma, one option is to develop new sustainable
bioplastics that are compatible with the environment over the whole
material life cycle. We report a sustainable bioplastic made from
natural DNA and biomass-derived ionomers, termed as DNA plastics.
The sustainability involves all aspects of the production, use, and
end-of-life options of DNA plastics: (1) the raw materials are derived
from biorenewable resources; (2) the water-processable strategy is
environmentally friendly, not involving high-energy consumption, the
use of organic solvents, and the production of byproducts; (3) recyclable
and nondestructive use is achieved to significantly prolong the service
lifetime of the plastics; and (4) the disposal of waste plastics follows
two green routes including the recycling of waste plastics and enzyme-triggered
controllable degradation under mild conditions. Besides, DNA plastics
can be “aqua-welded” to form arbitrary designed products
such as a plastic cup. This work provides a solution to transform
biobased hydrogel to bioplastic and demonstrates the closed-loop recycling
of DNA plastics, which will advance the development of sustainable
materials.