Elizabeth Armstrong Moore

Newser Staff

(NEWSER) – At US military training facilities, spent shells are scattered across proving grounds, many buried several inches below ground. What if these bullets were biodegradable and contained seeds that would sprout into beneficial plants over time?

It may sound a bit utopian, but the US Department of Defense has just released a call to arms of sorts asking for someone to come up with just that: "biodegradable composites with embedded seeds for training ammunition."

The department cites several reasons for why this would prove helpful, including for environmental purposes (regular bullets rust and pollute not only soil but groundwater) and safety reasons (a farmer tilling a former live-fire range could run into trouble).

The pollutant issue may seem small when measured by the shot, but it builds up, reports Popular Mechanics. So the US Army Corps of Engineers' Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory has created and tested seeds for a biodegradable composite, engineering them to sprout months after being embedded in the ground, per Live Science, which adds that the word "bullet" applies to the 40mm rounds that are more like grenades and the 120mm rounds that are used in tanks. Once biodegradable versions of these bullets have been worked up, a prototype will be made and a way for it to be mass-manufactured determined.

But the bullets are only meant for training, not combat, and the Army says animals should be able to eat them without suffering any ill consequences. (The Navy can't afford these bullets.)

This story originally appeared on Newser:

Here's Why the US Army Wants Biodegradable Bullets

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