Parents who fret over the choice between cloth and disposable diapers may soon have another option: biodegradable ones made with a new material called called “Shrilk,” so named because it’s made by combining a silk protein with chitin, a hard substance commonly extracted from shrimp shells.

The Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University reports that Shrilk “replicates the exceptional strength, toughness, and versatility of one of nature’s more extraordinary substances — insect cuticle.”