2025 UMass Dartmouth Biodegradability Lab Video Transcript

On the South Coast, UMass Dartmouth will anchor the Blue Economy corridor and advance sustainable fisheries management. Marine technology and ocean sciences. The biodegradability lab here at UMass Dartmouth started as an idea by Mike Joyce, who is an alumni of UMass Dartmouth and was the CEO and president of Primaloft. He wanted to understand whether or not the materials he were creating were biodegradable.

Plastics are everywhere, and they're in many forms, and when they break down, they never actually go away or disappear. They become something called a microplastic. A microplastic is something that's smaller than five millimeters, and it's found in our air. It's found in our water. It's found our soil, and it's found inside of us. Currently, microplastics make up 80% of our marine pollution.

They're a problem that never goes away. The application of the biodegradability lab is not only to be a center for innovative and sustainable research of materials, but also as a bridge between industry, academia and our community. I hope that biodegradable plastics comes to the forefront of people's minds, and that it starts to make its way into traditional plastic spaces.

We are uniquely situated in New Bedford, Massachusetts, and here is where one of the premier textile and fishing industries started, and it is so important to be able to ensure the safety of our community as well as the waters around it.