Why is it in News?

• Scientists have developed algae-based, renewable flip-flops that could be an environment friendly alternative to petroleum-based slippers
• The latter are very popular in India and China.

What is its significance?

• Three billion petroleum-based flip-flops are produced worldwide each year, eventually ending up as non-biodegradable trash in landfills, rivers and oceans around the globe.
• It is the Number one shoe in the world.
• One of the largest pollutants in the ocean is polyurethane from flip- flops and other shoes that have been washed or thrown into rivers and flow into the ocean
• Petroleum comes from algae that lived in the ancient oceans hundreds of millions of years ago,
• The flip-flops, shoe soles and other polyurethane products scientists make from living algae oil are "sustainable" because the carbon to construct them was pulled from the atmosphere, rather than underground oil reserves, researchers said.
• Scientists are seeking to also make them "biodegradable," by chemically converting the algae oil into polyurethane in manner that will allow the carbon bonds to be degraded by microorganisms, they said.