Sept. 17, 2007 — Chewing gum is pretty much synonymous with all things sticky, tacky and gummy. But now scientists have developed a nonstick version that removes easily from pavement, hair, shoes and clothes.
The chewed bits also degrade naturally in water and could significantly reduce the amount of gum pollution gunking up sidewalks and parking lots.
"If you stick this chewing gum onto a sidewalk, within 24 hours the gum has disappeared," said Roger Pettman, chairman and CEO of Revolymer, the London-based company formed to develop and market the gum.
Pettman said that the gum doesn't vanish into thin air, but gets broken up by a combination of foot traffic and environmental effects and probably gets swept into the sewer.
What it doesn't do is stick to shoes or the pavement — a problem that the gum's inventor, professor of chemistry Terence Cosgrove of Bristol University in London, thought he could overcome.
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Cosgrove, who is an expert in things that stick or don't stick, was inspired to develop the gum after noticing a high amount of disgusting black spots of discarded gum on a Bristol University sidewalk.
The solution, said Pettman, is fairly simple.
