Plastic is the boon and bane of our time. 92% of them end up in landfill or ocean, which has a drastic impact on the environment and especially the ocean habitat. There have been many new exciting alternatives to petroleum-based plastics, such as mushroom materials, shrimp cells, and older innovations such as paper and bioplastics.
This morning, I received a newsletter in my mailbox from Sustainable Brands, and one of the featured articles was titled “Forgetting the Recycling Bin – If All Goes Well, You’ll Soon be Able to Eat Your Water Bottle.” Skipping Rocks Lab is the start-up that produced this water “blob” container called the Ooho! that is flexible, biodegradable, and even edible. Such an innovative idea! The company is addressing some flaws the product carries and they are testing to make the water blob container resealable as well. But this water blob can actually be made at home, following a technique used in culinary arts called ‘spherification’. For folks that forget to bring their water bottles along, this would be the perfect alternative to buying a plastic water bottle. If you’re hungry, just eat the skin!
Closing the loop in manufacturing processes is a sustainable goal that many companies are working towards. So how does a ketchup company’s by-product becoming a car company’s input sound to you? Ford and Heinz have successfully collaborated to turn tomato fibers into bioplastic-based composite materials for car manufacturing. The dried tomato skins could also be useful for some compartments in Ford vehicles. From a company that takes in more than two millions tons of tomatoes to produce their signature Heinz Ketchup product, it was a solid move to recycle and repurpose peels, stems and seeds from the tomatoes. I wish to see more and more collaborations like this, as innovation could be born when companies come together and seek for beneficial solutions, and that is what we are striving for in the sustainability field.