Globally, people chew roughly 100,000 tonnes of gum each year, but what happens once we’ve finished with it? Ancient civilisations chewed tree resins such as chicle, but by the 1950s this had been replaced by synthetic gums.

Alongside this gum base, modern chewing gum contains softeners such as vegetable oil, emulsifiers that reduce stickiness, fillers like talc to add bulk, plus flavourings, sweeteners, preservatives and colourings. Synthetic gums are generally not biodegradable, but in some cases, they can be recycled into new plastic products.

New, more sustainable chewing gum us alternative natural gums like tree sap or rubber.

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Asked by: Vicky Stein, via email

Authors

Dr Claire Asher

Dr Claire Asher is a science journalist and has a PhD in Genetics, Ecology, and Evolution (GEE) at the University of Leeds. She also works part time as Manager of the UK Robotics and Autonomous Systems (RAS) Network, based at Imperial College London. Asher is also the author of Brave Green World: How Science Can Save Our Planet.

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