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Whether it's food packaging from a shop, or drinking juice from a plastic bottle, single-use plastics are a common part of life for many people.

But it's a big issue for nature and the environment.

Each year millions of tonnes of plastic ends up in the sea, most of which isn't biodegradable. That means it doesn't break down over time, like paper or food, so instead it can hang around in the environment for hundreds of years.

And, when larger pieces of plastic such as drinks bottles do break down, they can turn into much smaller pieces, called a microplastics, which can be swallowed by wildlife.

Scientists and manufacturers have been looking for environmentally friendly alternatives to conventional plastic and researchers in Japan say they have now developed a version of the material that will fully dissolve in the ocean.

While some recyclable plastics do exist, the main problem is what happens when they enter the sea, as they don't break down in water. In fact, some plastic waste can take more than 500 years to break down at all.

To solve the problem, scientists at the Riken research institute in Japan worked to develop a plastic that would remain strong but would be able to fully break down in environments such as soil and sea water, without leaving any microplastics behind.

Tests showed that the new plastic would start to break down within hours when placed in slat water.

And, when put into soil, the sheets of the new plastic degraded in 10 days and supplied a chemical similar to fertiliser, which helps keep soil healthy.

Takuzo Aida, who led the study, said: "With this new material, we have created a new family of plastics that are strong, stable, recyclable, can serve multiple functions, and importantly, do not generate microplastics."