ARTICLE: Bioplastic Made from Poop, for a Profit
Interesting for all kinds of discussion from the Good magazine blog ...
As cities expand, we create more waste and more sewage, and we don’t have any really good plan for it. At the same time, we keep making more and more plastic that never goes away, filling landfills or swimming in oceanic garbage patches. What if we could turn the poop into plastic that biodegrades?
Ryan Smith is CTO of Micromidas, and he turns poop into plastic for a living. “We take raw sewage from a waste water treatment plant and we convert it to biodegradable plastic.” He says it is “just a series of tanks, nothing complicated or fancy about it.” That’s because he gets bacteria to do the hard work for him, and that’s the novelty of his product.
Right now Micromidas is still paying for research, testing, and other start-up costs. The challenge is finding the right bacteria and then proving the plastic resin powder they produce can be processed into a functional material.
If all goes well, Micromidas will be operating at a commercial scale within the next six to 12 months. What will its bioplastic be used for? Plastic packaging—that doesn't get anywhere near food.
Read and discuss
As cities expand, we create more waste and more sewage, and we don’t have any really good plan for it. At the same time, we keep making more and more plastic that never goes away, filling landfills or swimming in oceanic garbage patches. What if we could turn the poop into plastic that biodegrades?
Ryan Smith is CTO of Micromidas, and he turns poop into plastic for a living. “We take raw sewage from a waste water treatment plant and we convert it to biodegradable plastic.” He says it is “just a series of tanks, nothing complicated or fancy about it.” That’s because he gets bacteria to do the hard work for him, and that’s the novelty of his product.
Right now Micromidas is still paying for research, testing, and other start-up costs. The challenge is finding the right bacteria and then proving the plastic resin powder they produce can be processed into a functional material.
If all goes well, Micromidas will be operating at a commercial scale within the next six to 12 months. What will its bioplastic be used for? Plastic packaging—that doesn't get anywhere near food.
Read and discuss
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