The solely factor worse than getting a 12 months older in your birthday is opening a card to search out somebody has hi-lariously pranked you with a mountain of glitter. It’s not solely annoying, the stuff is dangerous for the planet—or at the very least it was. Researchers from the University of Cambridge have created a non-toxic vegan glitter alternative that ensures these shiny little particles aren’t going anyplace.

We now know that the 1000’s of tons of microplastics utilized in merchandise like cosmetics and face-scrubbing soaps are particularly dangerous for the atmosphere, however not earlier than the tiny non-biodegradable particles discovered their method into our oceans, our nationwide parks, and even vegetation. It’s a severe pollutant we might by no means be capable to clear up at this level, however we are able to work towards utterly eliminating the manufacturing and use of microplastics.

Modern glitter is an absolute nightmare on many ranges, and never simply because it appears to finish up on all the things lengthy after somebody opened a glittery birthday card or took their macaroni artwork to the subsequent stage. It’s constructed from tiny flecks of plastic and aluminum and isn’t solely tough to assemble, however requires a variety of vitality to supply, together with a visit by an extremely scorching energy-hungry furnace to make it shiny and reflective.

The apparent and preferrred answer could be to ban glitter eternally, however now that’s not going to occur due to a group of researchers from the University of Cambridge. (Insert a sarcastic “thanks!” right here.) In a recently published paper, the group particulars a brand new strategy to creating glitter-like particles from “colloidal particles of cellulose nanocrystals” that are sourced from the cellulose constructing blocks of timber, vegetation, and fruit and veggies. Instead of utilizing pigments or dyes to generate shade, it’s the construction of the nanocrystals themselves that bend and mirror gentle to supply vibrant and visual shades in an identical approach to how peacock feathers and butterflies produce their vibrant colours.

Even if these non-toxic vegan glitter particles lasted for a billion years, their shade wouldn’t fade or change, assuming the physics of sunshine in our universe stay the identical. But these particles gained’t be round that lengthy as a result of they’re utterly bio-degradable and can ultimately simply break down when discarded. This sort of glitter is additionally simpler to fabricate, because the researchers have developed a course of the place a cellulose answer is utilized to a skinny materials that may then be peeled away when it’s utterly dry, leaving a movie that may be floor as much as produce a desired consistency of glitter. One day your anger towards a buddy who crammed a birthday card with glitter will nonetheless be utterly justified, however perhaps you’ll be barely much less livid—you already know, for the atmosphere.