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Scientists Are Turning Plastic Waste Into Edible Biscuits. But Would You Eat Them?

Plastic_Waste_To_Food_Media_Slide

A discarded plastic bottle could one day become part of turning plastic waste Into edible biscuits.


Researchers at Southern Illinois University Carbondale have demonstrated a process which breaks PET plastic and agricultural waste into smaller carbon-rich molecules before feeding them to engineered yeasts. The microbes convert that carbon into protein, fats and other food components, which can then be combined with starch and fibre and 3D-printed into foods including a prototype biscuit.


The project grew from NASA's Deep Space Food Challenge, where the logic is compelling: astronauts traveling to Mars cannot continually resupply food, so waste itself potentially becomes a resource. NASA specifically sought systems capable of producing safe, nutritious food while using minimal resources and generating minimal waste.


But Earth is a different proposition. The technology potentially tackles two enormous problems simultaneously, plastic waste and future protein supply, while microbial food production could reduce dependence on agricultural land and water.


Yet important questions remain around contaminants, long-term food safety, regulatory approval, energy requirements, scalability and, perhaps hardest of all, whether consumers will accept food whose carbon originated in a plastic bottle. The current SIU product is still experimental and not approved for general human consumption.


The distinction matters: the plastic isn't the food. It feeds the biological process makin the food.



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