In a pioneering breakthrough, researchers have unveiled an innovative technique to make bioplastics from water hyacinth (Pontederia crassipes) to solve pollution and plastic waste. Leveraging the notorious water hyacinth, an invasive aquatic weed causing havoc in waterways, the scientists have demonstrated a circular approach to tackle environmental challenges.
Revolutionizing Bioremediation and Value-Added Products
Water hyacinth is endemic to South America and was introduced to North America and the rest of the world as an ornamental plant. However, once in the environment, they are infamous for choking waterways, causing damage to ecosystems, and causing over $100 million in annual control costs in the U.S. alone. However, the research team at the University of California, Riverside, led by Dr. Zhiwei Hu, discovered a way to harness the potential of this invasive plant for environmental redemption. Their technique involves using water hyacinth to absorb and break down pollutants from wastewater, addressing excessive nutrient pollution, and then converting the biomass into valuable bioplastics and fertilizer.
“We aimed to tackle two environmental problems — excessive nutrient pollution and plastic waste — with one circular solution,” explained Dr. Hu. “And we discovered the resulting bioplastics from water hyacinth perform on par with standard petrochemical plastics in terms of flexibility, durability, and strength.”
This groundbreaking approach provides a sustainable solution to the environmental issues associated with water hyacinths and offers a valuable resource for manufacturing bioplastics from water hyacinths. The researchers are investigating ways to enhance the experimental bioplastics to enable full industrial substitution for materials like polyurethane in consumer goods.
Turning a Troublesome Weed into a Resource
Fueled by excessive nitrogen and phosphorous levels in surface waters, water hyacinth outbreaks have been wreaking havoc on freshwater habitats. Creating bioplastics from water hyacinths and other valuable products could jumpstart more resilient regional bio-manufacturing ecosystems.
“The collaboration between wastewater treatment plants and our water hyacinth bioremediation technique combined with material generation is under exploration,” noted Dr. Hu. “Scaling this will help relieve stress on conventional plastic supply chains while supporting greener, carbon-conscious manufacturing.”
Towards a Greener Future: Scaling and Collaboration
The potential for scaling bioplastics from water hyacinths holds promise for addressing the challenges posed by water hyacinths and contributing to sustainable manufacturing practices. Water hyacinth is an invasive aquatic plant that can cause substantial ecological and economic damage by outcompeting native species, reducing biodiversity, and impeding water flow.
However, researchers have discovered that the fibrous tissues and polymers within water hyacinth can be extracted and used as feedstock for biodegradable plastics. By repurposing these invasive plants into valuable bioplastics, an immense potential exists for transforming an environmental burden into economic opportunity.
The research showcases the environmental benefits and highlights the economic potential of repurposing invasive plants. Scaling up bioplastic production from water hyacinth could provide a renewable, compostable alternative to conventional petroleum-based plastics.
Water hyacinth is an ideal candidate for sustainable bioplastic feedstock as an abundant and fast-growing invasive species requiring no additional land, water, or nutrient resources. If successful, this approach could present an economically viable alternative to conventional plastic production, supporting ecological resilience through invasive plant control and closed-loop manufacturing powered by renewable plant biomass.
Additionally, the bioplastics from water hyacinths offer promising mechanical properties comparable to polyethylene and polypropylene. The research indicates that water hyacinth bioplastics could replace conventional plastics in various applications. By incentivizing large-scale harvesting of invasive plants, bioplastic production can mitigate ecological damage while meeting material demands.
Unlikely Collaborations: A Key to Sustainable Solutions
The collaboration between scientists and troublesome flora exemplifies the potential for finding solutions where they are least expected. By tapping into the disruptive tendencies of invasive plants, the research opens up new possibilities for environmental redemption and industrial symbiosis.
As the world grapples with pollution and plastic waste, bioplastics from water hyacinths offer hope. It showcases the transformative power of unlikely collaborations and the ability to turn environmental challenges into opportunities for innovation and positive change. The researchers believe that such groundbreaking initiatives could pave the way for a greener, more sustainable future in both environmental conservation and manufacturing.
As part of Microsoft’s goal to be carbon negative, water positive and zero waste by 2030, its gaming console division Xbox is working towards reducing its carbon footprint through research, innovation, strategic investment, and accountability. Xbox is looking at ways to use less new plastic, minimise waste and reduce its carbon footprint.
Reducing Waste
The company has released a collection of controllers that contain 20% or post-more consumer recycled resins. The newest controller is the Xbox Remix. This controller is made from recycled plastics and includes the company’s leftover Xbox One generation controller parts. The old parts are reground and mixed with virgin plastic to make the controller. The post-consumer plastics used to make the new controlled include CDs, plastic water jugs and automotive headlight covers.
The company started incorporating post-consumer recycled resins into its controllers in 2021 when it introduced the Daystrike Camo and Electric Volt controllers. The Remix Special Edition is the first to include regrind (a term for ground industrial plastic waste) from other controllers. The controller also includes a rechargeable battery pack, allowing players to move away from disposable batteries.
Another way Xbox is reducing waste is by offering refurbished consoles. The consoles undergo a rigorous certification process and are tested to confirm they are working correctly and are inspected for hardware and cosmetic quality. This is an excellent alternative to buying brand-new consoles.
Carbon Aware
Xbox has also announced that they are the first to release dedicated energy and carbon emissions measurement tools designed for game creators. When the console is plugged in and connected to the Internet, and if regional carbon intensity data is available, Xbox will schedule game, app and OS updates at specific times during the night that may result in lower carbon emissions. The console will wake up and perform maintenance at a time when it can use the most renewable energy in the local grid. The company also considers updating consoles to the Shutdown (energy-saving) power mode. The Shutdown can cut power use by up to 20x when it is off compared to Sleep.
Another energy setting update is the “Active hours” setting which will allow the console to boot up and be available for remote wake during the selected active hours. It will fully shut down once the active hours are over.
Xbox also introduced their Xbox Developer Sustainability Toolkit, which includes analytical and visual systems, measurement tools, and resources to help creators make informed decisions about energy consumption and carbon emissions associated with their game designs. The Toolkit includes energy consumption feedback, certification reports, dashboards that show the carbon footprint and total energy consumer during gameplay, guidance, best practices and case studies.
Xbox is taking important measures to reduce its impact and is leading as an example to other game console companies. At the rate they are going, they will reach Microsoft’s carbon goals by 2030.
In one of the world’s most crucial oil pricing regions, single-use plastic will be all but eliminated on January 1, 2024.
In 2017, we came to the island of Bali approximately halfway through a 10-month trip around the world with my family. We had been looking forward to the beaches and surfing for months, but when we arrived, we found them polluted with single-use plastic of all types. Due to a proliferation of corporate peddling of plastic convenience items but no meaningful way to manage trash or recycling in the communities, the local population discarded their waste in local ravines. The waste, flushed out to sea by winter monsoons, was deposited upon the (formerly) pristine beaches.
It is wonderful, therefore, to read that the United Arab Emirates (UAE) recently announced a ban on single-use plastic items, from cutlery to cigarette butts. The ban is part of an effort to reduce the plastic waste in the world’s oceans, a number generally estimated at around 8 million new tons each year. The announcement brings hope to environmentalists worldwide, showing us that even countries with an economic interest in oil-based plastic production are stepping up to make positive changes.
By banning single-use plastic products, the UAE is taking a big step forward regarding sustainability. Not only will this help reduce the amount of plastic waste in the ocean, but it will also encourage people to make more sustainable choices when they shop or eat out.
According to a 2019 report from the World Bank, the UAE ranked 11th in per capita consumption of single-use plastic. The report states that 11 billion single-use plastic items in the UAE are consumed annually, an average of 4.8kg per person or about 4 million tonnes per year for the entire country. This number contrasts with the global average of 3.25 kilograms per person. For reference, the highest-ranking countries for plastic waste are Japan, with 8 million tonnes and the USA, with 7.2 million tonnes, but a much higher population, resulting in lower per capita rates.
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) will ban most single-use plastics starting January 1, 2024. The ban includes everything from food packaging to plastic bottles, cotton sticks, crackers and chip bags, wet wipes, balloons and even balloon sticks that contain plastic. They also include cigarette butts and compostable plastic shopping bags, which while a good idea when used properly, often end up in the environment and can take decades to biodegrade outside a civic composting facility.
The UAE has introduced incentives for businesses to switch to reusable packing. They include subsidies for investments in reusable packaging, tax incentives for companies that reduce their plastic consumption, and grants for research projects on reducing plastic waste. The government has also introduced a new “Plastic Smart” program encouraging citizens to reduce their use of single-use plastics. It also enables businesses to reward customers who bring reusable items.
With these incentives in place, many businesses in the UAE have already begun to take steps to reduce their plastic consumption. For example, many hotels and resorts have started replacing plastic straws with paper or metal alternatives, while others are providing refillable bottles to customers instead of single-use plastic ones.
The immediate environmental benefits of the UAE’s ban on single-use plastics are apparent. By eliminating single-use plastics, the UAE will significantly reduce the amount of plastic waste in the ocean every year. This plastic ban, in turn, will prevent the destruction of marine life and reduce the risk of pollution from microplastics in the food chain and the greenhouse gasses emitted as plastic degrades over time.
The UAE is one of many countries to reduce plastic pollution in recent years. Countries like Canada, China, France, and the UK have also implemented similar bans. With continued effort, single-use plastics can be reduced or eliminated in the coming years.
Tomorrow Machine has designed GoneShells, a biodegradable juice bottle made from potato starch.
Most of the packaging we use today is single-use, meaning it’s meant to serve one purpose and then discarded after. On top of that, a lot of the packaging cannot be recycled due to the assortment of materials used to make them. Globally, we produce about 400 million tons of plastic waste yearly and the plastic containers we throw away take up to 450 years to degrade. A Swedish product design studio specializing in package, product and food concepts may have a sustainable solution to our wasteful plastic consumption.
The designers have created GoneShells, a biodegradable juice bottle. The bottle is made from a potato-starch material and coated in a bio-based water-resistant barrier on both the inside and outside to preserve the liquid it contains. The packaging can be home-composted, eaten or dissolved in water. The bottle is designed to be peeled into a spiral formation, similar to peeling an orange. Doing so breaks the barrier and immediately begins the material’s decomposition process. As long as the decomposition process isn’t activated, the packaging works similarly to a traditional plastic bottle.
The product was designed to tackle landfill waste and address the lack of recycling and industrial compositing facilities in some parts of the world. The designers also wanted to create packaging that would last the same amount of time as the contents inside. The designers are also using existing equipment designed to process fossil fuel-based thermoplastics. These methods and inexpensive raw materials will help bring GoneShells to markets. The only other thing the designers are working on to make this packaging 100% sustainable is the foiling letters that appear on the bottles. They are working on a printing solution that will follow the bottle concept.
Tomorrow Machine is also known for its This Too Shall Pass line, where the packaging is made with the same short life span as the food they contain. Their olive oil packaging is made out of caramelized sugar coated with wax. To use the contents inside, you crack it open like an egg. Once it is open, the wax no longer protects, and sugar and the package will melt when it comes in contact with water. Their smoothie packaging is made of agar-agar seaweed gel, and water is designed for drinks with a short life and needs refrigeration. It can be opened like a juice box by picking the top. Like the GoneShells, their packaging for Basmati Rice is wrapped in beeswax and can be opened by peeling the packaging.
Tomorrow Machine has a very innovative way to reduce single-use waste. By introducing GoneShells to markets worldwide, we can reduce the raw materials used to produce plastic and drastically minimize the waste that ends up in the landfill every year.
Fast food restaurants are big waste generators. However, the lack of viable sustainable alternatives to single-use plastic and the industry’s emphasis on cost and convenience means cheap, disposable foodware will be on their menus for some time yet.
Fast food chain KFC and Singapore-based sustainable foodware company TRIA are looking to disrupt the fast-food packaging industry with what they call the “world’s first” closed-loop single-use packaging pilot project.
In a six-month trial, one KFC restaurant in Singapore will switch its non-recyclable boxes, cups, and cutlery to those made from NEUTRIA, a rapidly degrading plant-based polyester developed by TRIA. The used packaging will be collected by TRIA and fed into their patented Bio24 digester, which turns it into compost within 24 hours.
Conventional plastic recycling faces many challenges in Singapore. Even if the food packaging is technically recyclable, segregating and cleaning it could potentially cost five times more than producing new packaging from scratch. Furthermore, most of the country’s plastic is incinerated. With little incentive to recycle or reduce plastic consumption, plastic waste is only expected to increase. Since 2017, plastic recycling rates have remained extremely low, usually hovering around 4 – 6 percent.
TRIA’s patented Bio24 digester, which can turn NEUTRIA packaging and food waste into compost within 24 hours. Image: Eco-Business
TRIA claims its product can remain relatively cost-competitive without compromising on sustainability. However, apart from ensuring the product’s economic viability, TRIA’s chief executive Ng Pei Kang says that sustainable foodware companies must give higher priority to their F&B partner’s operational needs if they are to make such packaging more widely accepted.
“I think it’s great that we are experimenting with [sustainable foodware like reusable cups], but we also need to empathise more with the food brands. How can KFC extend this to the 20,000 outlets they own without changing their operations? [With our model], they don’t need to hire more people or get new trash bins. If it’s not business as usual, it would be very tough [for restaurants to accept these new packaging products].” Ng said in an interview with Eco-Business.
During the pilot launch event at Shanaya Environmental Services on 21 June, KFC revealed that cost-competitiveness, design flexibility and operational resilience were some of the main factors which attracted them to TRIA’s product.
“Since 2017, we’ve been looking for new ways to reduce our use of non-recyclable packaging. We’ve previously considered edible spoons, but they could not meet our cost or operational requirements. However, TRIA was open to extensive redesigns and testing to ensure their product could withstand our daily operating needs and be collected and processed at an acceptable price point,” said Lynette Lim, general manager of KFC in an interview with Eco-Business.
The mashed potato/coleslaw cup, cutlery, pockets and mat made of NEUTRIA by TRIA for their 6-month pilot with KFC. Image: Eco-Business
Redesigning KFC’s mashed potato and coleslaw cup was particularly difficult for TRIA’s designers. Using the company’s plant-based material, the cup had to maintain its structural integrity when stacked, in addition to being heat and moisture-resistant. While it has yet to be tested in-store conditions, Lim cited this as an example of TRIA’s commitment to KFC’s operational standards.
For every tonne of NEUTRIA and food waste fed into the digester, TRIA claims that 200 – 300kg of compost can be produced. While the company has not yet secured an offtake agreement for its compost, it has signed memorandum of understandings (MOUs) with local rooftop farming company Comcrop, and Norwegian chemical and fertiliser company Yara International. Ng also highlighted how TRIA’s products and services can help these companies achieve their own business goals in a more profitable and sustainable way.
“Yara is looking to expand their regional presence here, and I think they are interested in our product because it could be a low-carbon source of fertiliser. In Europe, they have access to hydroponic power, which allows them to profitably produce low-carbon, green fertiliser. However, shipping this fertiliser to Asia is not realistic. That’s where we come in,” Ng explained.
Finished bags of compost made from NEUTRIA packaging and food waste. Image: Eco-Business.
In an upcoming bio-valorisation pilot, Yara hopes to produce bio-equivalent fertiliser from TRIA’s compost. Upon receiving TRIA’s product, Yara could theoretically adjust its nitrogen, potassium and phosphorus content to ensure that it is nutritionally equivalent to commercial fertilisers. Other than reducing costs, the closed-loop system allows the fertiliser to be traced, therefore building greater confidence in prospective buyers.
However, TRIA’s technology is not without drawbacks. The composting system hinges on TRIA’s ability to take ownership of and reprocess its post-consumer waste. Singapore is planning to introduce an extended producer responsibility (EPR) law for packaging by 2025, which could reduce public expenditure and the amount of waste sent to landfills. Nevertheless, Professor Seeram Ramakrishna, a mechanical engineering professor and chair of the National University of Singapore’s (NUS) Circular Economy Taskforce pointed out that achieving EPR has its difficulties.
What is extended producer responsibility (EPR)?
EPR is a policy approach where producers are given significant financial and/or physical responsibility for the treatment and disposal of post-consumer products.
“For EPR to work effectively, the presence of good waste management systems must be in place, including infrastructure to reprocess the waste. There should be a high level of compliance and enforcement,” explained Ramakrishna.
While Ng is confident TRIA can handle KFC’s in-store waste, he admitted that a system for managing takeaway waste remains elusive for now.
“Takeaway waste will still be sent to the public waste management system. However, the majority of packaging is used for dine-in purposes, and that’s where we are able to help,” Ng said.
In a previous interview with Eco-Business, Ng also professed that sourcing top talent for the sustainable food packaging industry remains a challenge. Furthermore, the hygiene and economic concerns of the pandemic have slowed the appetite for innovative new technologies like TRIA’s, he said. However, he stated that a partnership with one of the world’s most recognisable brands was an important step towards a circular packaging economy.
Launched last November as part of the retail giant’s partnership with environmental charity Hubbub, the funding was set aside using money raised through sales of plastic bags for life. It forms part of John Lewis Partnership’s work to develop and scale permanent buy-back or take-back schemes for all product categories by 2025.
The John Lewis Partnership and Hubbub have today (16 May) announced which four projects will receive a share of the funding and revealed that 245 applications were made to the fund.
The first successful applicant was Pip and Henry, which is developing solutions to minimize wasted children’s shoes. Pip and Henry research has revealed that children under the age of seven replace their shoes, on average, every four months. As most shoes are not designed for easy recycling, 85% of children’s shoes thrown away in the UK are sent to landfill or incineration.
Pip and Henry’s solutions are to design shoes that can be expanded as children grow, and to design shoes that are easier to recycle. The brand has already had success designing shoes made from organic and recycled materials.
Also in the fashion space, funding will be allocated to the University of Leeds’ ‘Polyester Infinity’ programme. Researchers are investigating low-water, low-emission methods of recycling waste polyester. Recycled polyester used by big-name fashion brands is typically made using plastic bottles, as it is challenging to remove dyes from polyester fabrics.
According to the Changing Markets Foundation, global polyester production has doubled globally since 2020. Most garments sold on the high street now include polyester blend or pure polyester components. This poses challenges regarding lifecycle emissions, garment durability, garment recyclability and microfibre shedding.
The other two projects receiving a share of funding are from period product brand DAME and the Scottish Library and Information Council (SLIC).
DAME will use the funds to develop and launch a new digital platform which educates and supports people as they make the switch from disposable menstrual products – tampons and sanitary pads – to reusable menstrual cups. Duquense University School of Nursing estimates that, without reusable solutions, the average woman will use at least 9,120 tampons or sanitary towels in her lifetime. Most of these products contain plastics.
Finally, the SLIC is working to launch up to ten ‘lend and mend’ spaces at libraries across Scotland. The spaces will be staffed by volunteers and people will be able to come along to lend out household items they use rarely, and access advice on repair. This is similar to the ‘Library of Things’ movement in England and the ‘People’s Workshops’ in Norway.
“Our throw-away culture and the waste it generates are unquestionably among the biggest challenges we will face in our lifetime and tackling them will require a different kind of thinking,” said the John Lewis Partnership’s director of ethics and sustainability Marija Rompani.
“All these inspirational projects have the potential to create real impact and will provide valuable learnings in promoting the urgent need to adopt a more circular way of living. With the funding awarded for the year ahead we want to help these amazing ideas to thrive for the long-term benefit of us all.”
John Lewis Partnership, through Waitrose & Partners, has previously worked with Hubbub to allocate £1m to innovators working to solve the plastic pollution crisis.
The world has taken its biggest step yet to curb the plastic pollution crisis.
The United Nations said Wednesday that representatives of 175 countries have agreed to develop a first-of-its-kind global treaty to restrict plastic waste. The resolution followed negotiations over the past week at the fifth session of the U.N. Environment Assembly in Nairobi, Kenya.
The treaty aims to tackle one of the most pressing environmental issues the world faces. The sheer pervasiveness of plastic waste has been widely recognized in recent years, with plastic debris identified everywhere from Arctic snow to the bottom of the Mariana Trench, the deepest point in the ocean. Microplastics, tiny pieces of the material, have also been found in the digestive tracts of a range of species, from fish to seabirds, and even humans.
The U.N. said member states agreed to begin crafting a legally binding international agreement that addresses the “full lifecycle of plastic,” from its production to its disposal.
Inger Andersen, the executive director of the U.N. Environment Program, called the resolution, “the most significant environmental multilateral deal” since the Paris Agreement, a landmark accord signed by 196 countries in 2015 that aims to limit global warming to below 1.5 degrees Celsius.
“Today marks a triumph by planet earth over single-use plastics,” Andersen said in a statement. “It is an insurance policy for this generation and future ones, so they may live with plastic and not be doomed by it.”
A delegate looks at a 30-foot monument dubbed “Turn off the plastic tap” by the Canadian activist and artist Benjamin von Wong, made with plastic waste collected from Kibera slums, at the venue of the fifth session of the U.S. Environment Assembly in Nairobi, Kenya, on Monday.Monicah Mwangi / Reuters
The proliferation of plastic has grown astronomically, from more than 2 million tons produced in 1950 to nearly 400 million tons produced in 2017, according to the U.N.
More than 12 million tons of plastic waste flow into the world’s oceans each year, the intergovernmental organization said, adding that that figure could triple by 2040.
A 2021 assessment by the U.N. Environment Program estimated that less than 10 percent of the world’s plastic has been recycled.
“Plastic pollution has grown into an epidemic,” Espen Barth Eide, president of the U.N. Environment Assembly’s fifth session and Norway’s minister for climate and the environment, said in a statement. “With today’s resolution we are officially on track for a cure.”
Barth Eide acknowledged that the resolution occurred against the backdrop of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, saying it “shows multilateral cooperation at its best.”
The U.N. said the treaty will not only curb the amount of plastic pollution, but will also reduce greenhouse gas emissions associated with producing the material, since plastics are made from fossil fuels.
Nik Sekhran, chief conservation officer at the World Wildlife Fund, applauded the development and called it a “historic agreement.”
“As we strive toward securing a healthier future for people and the planet, today’s decision sets us on an ambitious mission to solve our plastic pollution crisis and to achieve a strong circular economy,” he said in a statement.
World leaders will now have until the end of 2024 to craft the treaty, including settling details on funding and collaboration.
Sneakers made from banana or pineapple leaves, dresses from nettles or fish scales – the search for sustainable materials has taken the fashion industry to some wild places.
Experts warn these new textiles are not a quick fix for fashion’s enormous problems with over-consumption and waste, but may be a necessary step in developing cleaner technologies.
“You could possibly eat the final product,” said Hannes Schoenegger, co-founder of Bananatex, which uses leaves from banana ..
He was speaking at the Premiere Vision Paris conference, where industry professionals gather to find out which fabrics will dominate coming seasons.
“We only harvest the sides of the plants, and they’re already growing in the forest, so no chemicals, pesticides or even water are used,” Schoenegger added.
He was among multiple stalls presenting new bio-sourced materials.
Brazil-based Nova Kaeru offered leather made from the discarded scales of the giant pirarucu fish and another from the tropical “elephant ear” plant.
Nearby, Ananas Anam showed off some Nike shoes made from waste pineapple leaves.
Nettles are in
These textiles can be relatively niche, but some companies are determined to bring them into the mainstream.
Spanish firm Pyratex offers multiple options, from recycling the waste of corn and sugar cane production, to making fibres from Icelandic seaweed, Chinese bamboo or Austrian wood.
“It’s not about replacing cotton with one alternative crop. It’s about finding a wide variety of substitutes to make sure that nothing is over-used,” said spokesperson Pilar Tejada Lopez.
One plant getting particular interest is the nettle, which can be turned into a silk-like and incredibly strong fabric that can be used in everyday and luxury clothing.
It highlights the fact that many of these technologies are not new.
“Nettles have actually been used for clothing for centuries, but we have largely forgotten,” said Lopez.
“Part of our job is reintroducing these ideas that have been lost.”
Natural limits
Others warn of over-reliance on new materials in the drive towards sustainability.
“Replacement materials serve no purpose if we continue to make the same amount of clothing,” said Victoire Satto, of The Good Goods, a media firm specialising in responsible fashion.
They could even add to the problem if scaled up by encouraging further deforestation to make way for newly fashionable plants, she said.
That is why companies like Baananatex refuse to go beyond natural farming limits.
“Our project is part of a reforestation programme, a good way of revitalising soils and providing work to local families,” said Schoenegger.
“There’s a natural limit and we won’t go beyond that, because then it would be harmful.”
Pyratex similarly puts a lot of emphasis on partnering with responsible farmers, and avoiding the ultra-complex supply chains that make it difficult for clothing companies to know who grows their raw materials and in what conditions.
But Satto says more research is also needed on the durability of bio-sourced materials, since half the ecological damage from an item of clothing is linked to its disposal.
“If the product only lasts six months, that’s enormous in terms of environmental impact,” she said.
Iterations
Ifeanyi Okwuadi, an award-winning British designer, says his focus is on how clothes are made – not what they are made from.
“When I speak about sustainability, I’m talking about the construction – right down to using the right stitch-length for each stitch because that kind of minute detail affects the longevity of the garment when you put it in the wash,” he said.
He says many bio-sourced materials are still evolving.
“Right now, there’s a lot of buzzwords to draw you in, but eventually we won’t need to say it’s from bananas or whatever — it will just be plant-based fibres.”
“I don’t use them in my work because the tech at the moment is quite primitive. But I see them as iterations, like with all technology, and we need these innovations.”
Beaches littered with plastic bottles and wrappers. Marine turtles, their stomachs filled with fragments of plastic. Plastic fishing nets dumped at sea where they can throttle unsuspecting animals. And far out in the Pacific Ocean, an expanse of water more than twice the size of France littered with plastic waste weighing at least 79,000 tonnes.
The plastic pollution problem is distressingly familiar, but many organisations are working to reduce it. Alongside familiar solutions such as recycling, a surprising ally has emerged: micro-organisms. A handful of microbes have evolved the ability to “eat” certain plastics, breaking them down into their component molecules. These tiny organisms could soon play a key role in reducing plastic waste and building a greener economy.
The scale of the problem
As a species, we make an enormous amount of plastic. In 2020, the most recent year for which we have data, 367m tonnes were produced globally, according to trade association Plastics Europe. This represented a slight decline compared with 2019, when 368m tonnes were made, but that was probably because of the Covid-19 pandemic: production had previously increased almost every year since the 1950s. A 2017 study estimated that 8.3bn tonnes of plastic had been made in total.
In 2016, the world produced 242m tonnes of plastic waste. Pictured below, volunteers collect plastic rubbish from a beach in Lima, Peru. Photograph: Ernesto Benavides/AFP/Getty Images
A huge fraction of this goes to waste. In 2016 the world generated 242m tonnes of plastic waste, according to the World Bank. Despite the popular image, only a small fraction of this ends up in the ocean – but the seas may still be absorbing more than 10m tonnes of plastic every year. As well as the dangers of the plastics themselves, they contain a lot of additives that leach out into the water. “Over time we really don’t know what effects these have,” says Tiffany M Ramos of Roskilde University in Denmark.
Much of the rest ends up in landfills. That does not sound so bad, but a lot of it is single-use plastic, which is inherently wasteful. Making plastic requires extracting fossil fuels such as oil from the ground, with all the pollution risks that entails. Plastic manufacturing also releases greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming. A 2021 report found that the US plastics industry alone releases 232m tonnes of greenhouse gases every year, the equivalent of 116 coal-fired power plants.
The solution is not to stop using plastics altogether, because they are incredibly useful. For example, plastic bottles are far lighter than glass ones, so transporting them requires less energy and releases a smaller amount of greenhouse gases. But we do need a revolution in how we handle plastics, and this is where the micro-organisms come in.
On the scrapheap
In 2016 researchers led by microbiologist Kohei Oda of the Kyoto Institute of Technology in Japan reported a surprise discovery. Oda’s team visited a recycling site that focused on items made of polyethylene terephthalate (PET), a clear plastic that is used to make clothing fibres and drinks bottles.
Like all plastics, PET is a material made up of long string-like molecules. These are assembled from smaller molecules strung together into chains. The chemical bonds in PET chains are strong, so it is long-lasting – exactly what you do not want in a single-use plastic.
Oda’s team took samples of sediment and wastewater that were contaminated with PET, and screened them for micro-organisms that could grow on the plastic. It found a new strain of bacterium, called Ideonella sakaiensis 201-F6. This microbe could grow on pieces of PET. Not only that: Oda’s team reported that the bacterium could use PET as its main source of nutrients, degrading the PET in the process.
A Chinese labourer sorts plastic bottles for recycling, 2015. In 2017, China banned trade in most plastic waste, putting pressure on the EU and US to find new ways to deal with the issue. Photograph: Fred Dufour/AFP/Getty Images
The key to this ability was a pair of enzymes made by the bacteria. Enzymes are complex molecules that can speed up chemical reactions. They are crucial to life: our digestive system relies on enzymes to break down the complex chemicals in food into simpler ones that our bodies can absorb and use. For example, our saliva contains an enzyme called amylase that breaks up the long molecules of starch found in foods such as bread.
Ideonella sakaiensis 201-F6 produces two unique enzymes. The first is a PETase that breaks the long PET molecules down into smaller molecules called MHET. A second enzyme called MHETase then goes to work, producing ethylene glycol and terephthalic acid. These two chemicals are the building blocks of PET, so Ideonella sakaiensis 201-F6 can completely reverse the manufacturing process that made PET.
Plastic eaters
The finding made headlines around the world, but it was not the first example of an organism that could degrade plastics. Reports of plastic-munching microbes date back to at least the early 1990s. The earliest examples were arguably less remarkable, because they could only eat plastics that were chemically flimsy or biodegradable. But by the 2000s researchers had found enzymes that could tackle tougher plastics.
A prominent researcher in this area has been Wolfgang Zimmermann of Leipzig University in Germany. His team studied enzymes called cutinases, which it obtained from bacteria such as Thermobifida cellulosilytica, and which could also break down PET.
If you’re the first bacterium in that rubbish pile that suddenly has a taste for plastic, then you’ve got an unlimited food source – Prof John McGeehan, University of Portsmouth
Lars Blank of Aachen University in Germany first heard about this in 2012. He set about creating a consortium of researchers to study plastic-eating enzymes. This became the P4SB project, which ran from 2015 to 2019. Blank has since set up a project called MIX-UP, which sees European and Chinese researchers cooperating.
By the mid-2010s plenty of plastic-degrading enzymes were known. The potential was clear to Gabriella Caruso of the Institute for Coastal Marine Environment in Messina, Italy, who wrote in a 2015 review that “microbial degradation of plastic is a promising eco-friendly strategy which represents a great opportunity to manage waste plastic materials with no adverse impacts”.
So why did Ideonella sakaiensis 201-F6 cause such a stir? “The difference with the 2016 paper was this micro-organism could use the plastic as its sole energy and food source,” says John McGeehan of the University of Portsmouth. “That’s actually quite surprising and it kind of shows evolutionary pressure in action. If you’re the first bacterium in that rubbish pile that suddenly has a taste for plastic, then you’ve got an unlimited food source.”
Put another way, the earlier enzymes had not evolved for plastics. They evolved to break down tough chain molecules found in living things, and their ability to degrade plastic was a side-effect. In contrast, the enzymes in Ideonella sakaiensis 201-F6 were specialised.
Blank has a different interpretation, arguing that the Ideonella sakaiensis 201-F6 enzymes are not especially good because they only degrade PET slowly. “Wolfgang Zimmermann had far better enzymes at that point,” he says. But the excitement the paper created had a huge impact. “Suddenly the media and also the academic literature really cranked up and a lot of interest came in.”
Better and better enzymes
Two years later McGeehan and his colleagues took things further. They produced a three-dimensional structure of the Ideonella sakaiensis 201-F6 PETase, shedding light on how it worked. Hoping to understand how it evolved, they tweaked the structure. To their surprise, this made the enzyme more efficient at degrading PET. Clearly, it was possible to improve the enzyme.
McGeehan now wants to take that further, modifying the PETase and other such enzymes so that they can be used on an industrial scale to break down plastics that would otherwise linger in the environment. “We’ve got a big £6m grant from the government,” he says, and they have started a specialist institute called the Centre for Enzyme Innovation.
This is now bearing fruit. In 2020 McGeehan’s team reported that it had linked the PETase and MHETase enzymes together. This “super-enzyme” could eat PET about six times faster than the two enzymes working separately. Other groups such as Blank’s MIX-UP have produced modified enzymes of their own.
Prof John McGeehan, director of the Centre for Enzyme Innovation at the University of Portsmouth. His team have created a ‘super-enzyme’. Photograph: University of Portsmouth/Stefan Ventur/PA
Meanwhile there is evidence that microbes all around the world are evolving similar abilities. A study published in October 2021 looked at microbial DNA from a range of habitats. In areas with high levels of plastic pollution, the researchers found that the microbes were more likely to have enzymes with plastic-degrading tendencies. In line with this, a 2020 study identified a soil bacterium that can feed on some of the components of polyurethane, which releases toxic chemicals when it breaks down.
The question now becomes: how significant a role can these enzymes really play in reducing plastic pollution?
The circular economy
So far, most of the activity has been in universities, but some groups are attempting to commercialise the technology. The University of Portsmouth has set up Revolution Plastics, which aims to forge links between academics and industry. “We’ve already advertised a joint PhD project with Coca-Cola,” says McGeehan. He is also part of an international research team called BOTTLE, which is negotiating with large companies.
The most advanced project is run by Carbios, a French biotechnology company. In September 2021 it opened a pilot plant in Clermont-Ferrand, where it will test a system for recycling PET. Carbios’s system uses an enzyme that was first identified in compost, which they modified so that it worked faster and could operate at high temperatures where PET is softer.
The advantage of these enzymes is that they break down the plastic at the molecular level, so it is possible to recreate the highest-quality plastic. In contrast, other forms of recycling cause a slow decline in quality, until eventually the plastic cannot be recycled again and gets landfilled or incinerated. Enzymatic recycling, in theory at least, is truly circular. “That’s what we call a closed-loop recycling system,” says Ramos. “You recycle something, but then you’re able to make something new of the same quality out of that.” To date, only a tiny percentage of plastics are being recycled in this way, but the enzymes could change that – “Which would be great.”
In a circular economy, everything is recycled as much as possible. Photograph: Yagi Studio/Getty Images
McGeehan says: “I think in the next five years we’re going to be seeing demonstration plants all over the place.”
Still, there are limits to the enzymes’ usefulness. “It will never be a one-size-fits-all type of solution,” says Ramos, and we should not count on the enzymes to mop up all our plastic waste. Some plastics are even tougher than PET.
Blank points out that the enzymes work best if the plastic has been softened by heating. That means releasing the enzymes into the environment would not do much good: they only really work in temperature-controlled reactors. So the solution to plastic in the sea remains the same as before: we have to stop releasing it in the first place.
Nevertheless, it seems likely that plastic-eating enzymes will have a role to play as societies move towards a circular economy in which everything is recycled as much as possible. In a study published in July 2021, McGeehan and his colleagues estimated how much enzymatic recycling of PET will cost. They calculate that it could compete on cost with standard manufacturing methods, which use fossil fuels as feedstock.
The key is to be savvy about where we use the enzymes, says Blank. Some plastics can be mechanically recycled, a technology that is improving rapidly, so they probably are not the best targets. Instead, he says, researchers should go for plastics that cannot be recycled any other way – particularly if they can become substances that are otherwise expensive to make.
Ultimately, the enzymes have to be part of a revolution in the entire way we make and use plastics, says Ramos. Better methods of recycling are useful, she adds, but they are only part of the solution. It is also important for plastic products to be designed in such a way that they can easily be reused and recycled. That might mean avoiding designs that use several kinds of plastic, or fuse plastic with other materials, as these are very difficult to recycle.
As with all our environmental problems, there is no silver enzyme. These chemical machines can help us recycle plastic better, but we will always need to pick up our litter.
In a secret location in an industrial area in western Sydney, a test strip of asphalt is being laid.
But this is no ordinary road.
The 50-metre strip stretching out into the hot afternoon sun is held together by an unusual material. The gooey cellulose that binds a road surface together is usually imported from overseas, but here it has been sourced locally: from the paper, plastic, lids and liners of coffee cups that were once destined for landfill.
A test strip of road which incorporates coffee cups from the Simply Cups program. Photograph: Carly Earl/The Guardian
For months now, heavily loaded trucks have rolled back and forth over this asphalt and the surface has held up without cracking. The product has been put through a machine test that flexes it until it fails. So far, it has done everything a road surface is expected to do, and then some, says John Kypreos, director of State Asphalt Services. “It’s a better performance product than what we were producing before.”
Exactly how much of the asphalt was once part of a takeaway coffee cup is top secret, according to Kypreos. Ask too many questions and you’re hit with the same answer: that’s the “secret herbs and spices”.
But the western Sydney asphalt manufacturer is on the cusp of rolling out the first roads in Australia surfaced with recycled waste from coffee cups, as part of a collaboration with recycling program Simply Cups. The unusual partnership was brokered by the organisation Closed Loop, which looks for opportunities to achieve what’s known as “net-positive waste”.
Kypreos met Closed Loop’s chief commercial officer, Chris Collimore, about a year ago, after a late-night conversation at a birthday party turned to how waste can be used to make roads. Soon after, he saw a Simply Cups collection stand in a 7-Eleven, and got on the phone to Collimore.
“It really did start with an idea that John had that he then matched up with our program,” Collimore says.
Chris Collimore, the chief commercial officer of Closed Loop. Photograph: Carly Earl/The Guardian
Net-positive waste
The idea is a simple one: instead of burying waste in landfill, the raw materials of that waste are “upcycled” into new products. It means not only keeping stuff out of landfill, but that fewer virgin resources are consumed in the manufacture of new products. It also means less energy and therefore less greenhouse gas emissions go into the sourcing of those new resources.
That’s what’s called closing the loop, or a circular economy.
But there’s a big but: someone has to buy these recycled products, or else the loop has not actually been closed. And that’s where Closed Loop comes in as matchmaker: pairing up waste streams with companies that can do something with them.
Coffee cups are collected by Simply Cups and then turned into asphalt. Photograph: Carly Earl/The Guardian
“It’s not until you’re actually buying back the products that are made out of that [reused] material that you’re … properly recycling,” says Rob Pascoe, the organisation’s founder and head. “It’s not just a matter of lifting the lid on your yellow bin at home and putting stuff in the bin and saying, ‘I’ve done my job’.”
There are three conditions that need to be met to close the loop on a waste stream. First, there has to be a need for the product made from that waste, whether that be fence posts or street furniture. Second, the product made from waste has to be fit for purpose – it has to meet the same standards as the existing version. And third, it must be commercially viable.
Commercial viability isn’t about being cheaper than the non-waste-based alternative, Pascoe says. A product made from recycled materials might be slightly more expensive, but consumers need to remember how much money they’re simultaneously saving on waste disposal.
While coffee cups are attractive because they are an everyday and relatively easily collectable waste stream, the real low-hanging fruit for waste reuse is food waste, says Pascoe. Australia spends more than a billion dollars on artificial fertilisers in an attempt to restore the nutrient capacity of the soil that our food crops are grown in. But at the same time, we’re sending huge amounts of food waste to landfill where it generates methane.
“It’s sheer stupidity,” he says.
State Asphalt Services in western Sydney. Photograph: Carly Earl/The Guardian
Soft plastics are another one, and here Pascoe disagrees with the move to ban single-use plastics.
“It’s not the plastics that are the problem, it’s what we do with the plastics,” he says. As soon as you put a value on waste, it stops being waste and starts being a resource. “If we do that, it is very, very easy to recycle plastics.”
Pascoe says Australia has failed to invest in the necessary infrastructure to recycle properly. When community enthusiasm for recycling was at its peak, few knew the reality: that the waste we so carefully sorted into recycling bins was being shipped off to China.
“That has become what recycling means, and it’s not what recycling means,” he says. “We should be putting the demand back on people who create the waste to buy back products.”
Waste recovery and reuse has the potential to boost the Australian manufacturing industry. Photograph: Carly Earl/The Guardian
That change needs to come from the top, Pascoe argues, with government procurement policies that mandate a minimum amount of post-consumer recycled materials in products.
“If we can get to that point with governments then we’ve basically won the issue.”
A major boost for industry
Closing the loop doesn’t just offer environmental benefits, there are huge economic benefits as well, according to Gayle Sloan, CEO of the Waste Management and Resource Recovery Association Australia. Every 10,000 tonnes of waste that is recovered, reused, repurposed or recycled creates 9.2 jobs, compared with just 2.4 jobs if that material is sent to landfill or exported.
“We’ve got the chance to create four times as many jobs if we actually think about the materials that we consume and purchase, the supply chains, the collection, the reprocessing and the remanufacturing on shore,” Sloan says. Waste recovery and reuse offers the potential to be a major boost for the Australian manufacturing industry coming out of the Covid-19 pandemic, if it’s done right.
Sloan says the right sort of conversations are beginning within government, with MPs starting to talk about resources instead of waste, and “recognising that it’s not just something we discard in a linear way”.
The joint federal, state and territory governments’ 2019 National Waste Policy Action Plan set a target of banning the export of waste plastic, paper, glass and tyres starting in late 2020, achieving an 80% average recovery rate from all waste streams by 2030, and increasing the use of recycled content by governments and industry. In July this year, the federal government also committed $190m to a new Recycling Modernisation Fund that is intended to generate investment in Australia’s waste and recycling capacity.
Sloan argues Australia also needs a paradigm shift in thinking about how products are manufactured and consumed.
“We need to choose the right materials when we extract resources, and design it in such a way that the value proposition is there and the worth of the material is recognised,” she says. She’d like to see the Australian government mandating the shift to a circular economy strategy, like the European Union has done with its circular economy package.
“It’s not anti-competitive because that is the expectation, that we engage in circular economy that is designing out waste, creating regenerated systems and creating jobs,” she says. “All we’re doing is coming into line with the rest of the world.”
Cradle to cradle
Back in western Sydney, the eventual goal for Collimore and Kypreos is a road that is made of 100% recycled material.
Apologising for the “messy” state of his plant, Kypreos points out piles of crushed rock, sand, bitumen and lime, as well as bits of old road surface, which are all set to be transformed into asphalt. He is already using recycled glass to substitute for some of the sand. A complex process of dehydrating and heating turns it all into road surface.
Chris Collimore’s goal is a road that is made of 100% recycled material. Photograph: Carly Earl/The Guardian
There are huge opportunities for industry to make use of waste streams in Australia, Kypreos says, but the infrastructure that’s needed to sort and store waste so it can be easily accessed just doesn’t exist yet. He argues that waste levies should be spent on building that infrastructure, and on encouraging innovative partnerships and projects.
“There’s product in there,” he argues. “It’s just a matter of sitting down and testing and building the science to see if these items that they can pull out of their waste streams are useable or reusable.” But he’s also wary of being seen as the only option. “We’ve got to be careful that we’re not looked at as the new landfill alternative.”
Turning coffee cups into roads is a step in the right direction, but truly closing the loop means ensuring no raw materials are lost at any point along their life cycle. It’s a cradle-to-cradle mentality.
The ultimate goal is to reproduce the same product with recycled material, says Sloan. Plastics – white plastics in particular – would be an easy place to start, she says, because “we can turn that back into a yoghurt container over and over and over – if we choose the right materials, if we have the right collection.”
The coronavirus pandemic has devastated the economy but also presented a unique opportunity: to invest in climate action that creates jobs and stimulates investment, before it’s too late. The Green Recovery features talk to people on the frontline of Australia’s potential green recovery.
