Gut-friendly gum.

Gum disposal can get sticky. Chewed gum hardens into a gloppy mess that sticks to and stains everything. But Scott Hartman, an inventor at Wrigley, may have found a solution. He recently received a patent for an, "environmentally friendly" I chewing gum that won't make a mess of the environment or your stomach.

Ordinary chewing gum I is made from sugar, flavorings, and color, blended in a chewy base. The base is a combination of wax, plastic, and latex--a stretchy substance used to make rubber. "It takes a long time for plastic, latex, and wax to wear away," said Wrigley's Christopher Perille. That's the reason used gum can stick around under a desk or on a park bench for years. It's also why it takes you so long to digest gum--plastic and rubber aren't meant to be eaten.

The new gum base is easier on the environment and on your insides. It gets its stretch from edible polymers--long chains of proteins hooked together. "The thing that is special about the polymers is that they dissolve in water," says Perille. The new gum biodegrades (rots away when exposed to the rain, sun, and wind) more easily than latex gum. The new gum will also harden quickly, so it can be scraped off the floor or your shoes. And because it dissolves in water, the enviro-friendly gum will be easier to digest.

No one knows how long it will be before you can pick up a pack of digestible gum at the corner store. Wrigley still has to work on the gum's texture and flavoring. But gum scientists hope you can look forward to cleaner, less-sticky chewing gum in the future.