Turning table scraps into biodegradable, single-use plastics

Researchers are using bacteria that eat food scraps to create a new kind of fully biodegradable plastic that reduces waste and could be less expensive to manufacture than current plastics are.

The team from the University of Waterloo says this new method produces plastics that are soft and flexible, leading to many potential applications such as food wrap, drug delivery and in the repair of damaged tissues and organs.

“Using food waste as food for bacteria which can produce bioplastics is a very exciting development,” said Dr. Trevor Charles, a professor in the Department of Biology at Waterloo, and one of the authors of the study.  “This approach is significant because it has the possibility to reduce the cost of creating biopolymers.”

Image of biopolymers extracted from food waste

PHAs, the type of plastic that these bacteria can produce, are ecofriendly because they degrade naturally into benign byproducts in garden composts, agricultural fields, fresh or seawater and don't leave harmful plastic pollution or chemical residues behind. The research team is now trying to work out how to make these plastics in a cost-effective way.

“Currently, the process of breaking open the bacterial cells and recovering the polymer is costly. The team is working to develop an efficient and cost-effective extraction method that would make the overall production process more viable for large-scale commercialization,” said Dr. Tizazu Mekonnen, a professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering and an author of the study.  “This research not only offers a pathway to reducing the environmental impact of plastic waste, it also supports a circular economy by turning food waste into a valuable resource.”

The next steps in this research involve optimizing and scaling up the extraction process for the biopolymer.  The study, Production and Characterization of Biopolymer from Food Waste Using Pseudomonas putida, was recently published in ACS ES&T Engineering.