How biomaterials could save the planet | Freethink
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 27 ก.ย. 2021
- How biomaterials could save the planet | Mark Herrema | Newlight Technologies
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Plastics have seeped into all corners of the environment. In addition to the larger wrappers, bags, and bottles that litter the land and oceans, microplastics pollute less obvious places, including Antarctic ice, Colorado rainwater, and our own bodies.
Since the material entered commerce in the early 20th century, people have produced more than 9 billion metric tons of plastic. Of that, only 9% has been recycled. The majority of the plastic that doesn’t get burned or carried to landfills flows downstream into oceans, where it can kill marine life and take hundreds of years to degrade.
If current pollution rates persist, some researchers predict ocean plastic will outweigh all ocean fish by 2050.
Bioplastic products could put the world on a more sustainable track. Bioplastics are biodegradable materials made from biological substances instead of fossil fuels, and in some cases they function as well as or better than conventional plastics.
Read the full story here ►►www.freethink.com/series/make...
This video was created in partnership with Million Stories Media.
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Read more of our stories on biomaterials:
‘Liquid Death’ canned water - a thrilling alternative to plastic
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Diy factory turns plastic waste into super-strong bricks
►►www.freethink.com/environment...
New pregnancy test made from paper is flushable, biodegradable
►► www.freethink.com/health/flus...
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What do you think we should do about single-use plastics?
Stop producing it.
I find this ridiculous I would do 2 things:
1. Collect current plastics from the environment and charge the manufacturers for their collection and safe disposal
2. Place a price equity tax on all petroleum based plastics
We have to start paying the TRUE cost of our purchasing decisions, lest the next generation pays for it.
Make them illegal for manufacturers to use
Same thing we need to do for just about every problem in our society - change the system! Freethink has many great videos like this one about amazing, innovative, world-changing technologies that are available but the constant 'issue' they face is 'price-point'. Hello?! Can't anybody see the underlying problem here? Solutions are plenty! But our economic system is completed backwards. It is ruled by those with 'all the gold' (the money) and done as wastefully and destructively as possible for as long as possible for profit. That's the true problem.
There is no change without system change. We can have a beautiful world, but we cannot have it with money, markets, growth economies on a planet with finite resources. Don't get me wrong, I'm not against this technology or anybody working on environmentally friendly ideas, I'm pointing out ALL of the great technologies are not fully implemented not because they can't be done, but because the socio-economic system has made-up dumb rules that prevent it.
Keep working free thinkers and innovators, but also realize the system level change that is needed!
@@set65 Yes, we need a societal change, a value system re-orientation, for sure. However, in that scenario, let's say everybody did pick up a piece of trash and it all got put in the garbage, under the current system all that would mean is that trash would go to the landfill, and some of that gets still dumped in the ocean. So beyond just individual people change, we need the demand they could bring towards a social system change that is designed to actual solve problems directly like eliminating waste at all (or a much as possible).
In nature, there is no waste, and unfortunately, we've let society get to a point where we just accept that landfills are a thing we have, instead of looking at them as deep embarrassments to an 'intelligent' species who should be able to figure out through science and technology how to design everything efficiently.
This channel is great, your main differenciator is you cover real companies, real products and applications. No unshamed clickbait titles with theoric or research phase content that will come to life if we pour billions on it and wait 15 years.
For all science related YT channels, this is it. This is how it's done. I do enjoy lab breakthroughs and papers, but the real applications, business models and economics behind are so interesting and engaging.
Congratulations for your channel. Hope you get millions of subscribers soon.
The only thing that would make these videos better is if could last a few more minutes, but I get this will be probably possible when you get bigger
You can see in this video alone they reused a handful of the shots inside the factory. So to me that means they weren't there for very long. It would be interesting if they went a little more in depth. What happens after these items are used and discarded/recycled? What are other competing biomaterials?
This guy has insane amount of dedication and long term vision🔥
Me the same,want to save the environment
I think I know where to invest my money and it’s not in plastic.
Instead of still making single-use packaging, we should have fully recyclable natural plastic, that do degrade if you need to but can be recycled and reused in the same packaging
@@set65 Better than regular plastic at the least
Actually before SM plastic bags are degradable, they degrade by themselves slowly after months its gone
Governments world-wide should legislate all plastic products to be fully recyclable and promote the industries to accommodate the requirements.
The bio-plastics industry sounds like an exciting field to support and develop... I wish Mark and his am overwhelming success.
Extremely interesting! It is crazy how much plastic our team collected on the beaches of Tenerife. 🏖
If you put a easily recognizable logo on your bio degradable plastics, I would recognize it and personally will prefer it to any other competition that doesn't use it. If it's 5¢ or 50¢ more I'd pay it. Please bring it, manufacturers please use it.
I could not agree more, clarity is everything!
sir you guys making a world better place
Can’t wait until shopping bags are made of this stuff!
If this replaced straws and other basic fast food plastics and that mushroom thing replaced the foam plastics... this would be a great replacement for plastic that could work.
Congratulations on the teams commitment. It's forward thinkers that will save the planet from greed.
Polymers are available from many sources, biodegradable polymers are already in use worldwide, its only a question of scale at this point.
I really hope Mark and his team will make it! 👍🏿
Can this be used in a 3d printer, if so were can you buy it.
Amazing idea!
Hope they succeed globally!
I'm working with the local civil protection director to make a prototype of a torpedo style rescue floatation device to be donated and mounted on natural wood posts at our most historically dangerous beaches.
These torpedoes are abusively priced ($150 USD), not available locally here in México and not available in all-natural materials but I'm working to change that.
We need a local bioplastics supplier with materials well suited for this purpose with sheet plastic that can be manually heat-formed over a mold. And for a much larger scale impact, we need an estimate of the cost of mold that could be used with recycled plastics, bioplastics and biodegradable plastics also to blow mold them for us. If we can raise the funds to pay for the mold ourselves, the devices can be relatively very inexpensive which will make them very accessible and help save lives everywhere they're used.
What is the destination of discarded PHB? Can it only be downcycled into less useful material, or can it be indefinitely recycled? Is it compostable instead?
Is it eaten by organisms for energy like sugar, and so can't act as a carbon sink, or does it truly act as a carbon sink by being used for tissue construction in microorganisms?
Also, if it's a polymer found in lots of life, would large amounts of PHB and/or PHB decay products in the environment mess with the chemical signaling of any organisms?
What portion of current plastic products can be made with PHB while not sacrificing too many important properties of those products?
That’s a lot of questions
1) Currently, waste dump (where it will decompose) or incinerators (where it will burn off).
However, PHA's & B's are 100% recyclable. And its compostable (TUV Industrial Compost Cert) and if it ends up in the wrong places. It turns into food for any environment with high microbial loads (oceans, lakes, Rivers, Farm Fields ect...).
2) PHA's are the microbial equivalent to Fat. We store excess energy from food into Fat. Bacteria turns it into PHA. So no, its not a carbon sink. But more of a circular food-chain-Biopolymer.
There is one company working on using Methane as a food source, to engorge PHA bacteria to make the polymer. The same polymer can then be feed into a Anaerobic Solid Waste composter. Where it will generate more Methane.
Spent cooking oils (vegetable) is another. And spent barley is another. The biomass feed can be wide in range.
3) Great question and our biggest fears. PHA's are Marine Biodegradable by TUV. However, they can refuse to sign off on the certification, because they don't want consumers to start throwing their PHA plastic into lakes, rivers and oceans.
Anything of mass concentration released into the environment will have a negative impact.
That last part of being Marine Biodegradable is the last resort. Not the 1st choice on handling post consumed PHA's.
4) Right now, I would estimate 80% of all packaging can be made with PHA's. BUT here is the real issue. They aren't compatible with most industrial equipment making cups and plates or whatever else. There are processing constraints requiring specialized or customized equipment and tool to function properlly.
So imagine going to a facility that has $20M worth of injection molding equipment and telling them none is compatible with our material? Tough pill to swallow.
@@fredpinczuk7352 How feasible is it to sort PHA/B out of bulk waste? Is 100% recyclability only feasible with correctly sorted and cleaned PHA/B objects, or can it be purified from highly contaminated waste sources?
A tangent: What direction would you point me in if I wanted to find any research that has been done to determine the feasibility of reclaiming most-if-not-all materials from landfills? I'd like to get a better understanding of how impossible/possible it is to create isolated self-sustaining human habitats with no material imports.
@@lemonsavery Great question. We are currently testing the "typical" IR camera sorter used in commercial recycling and see if it isolates from the more "valuable" PET. However, the challenge then gets to that isolated material that will also contain HDPE, LDPE, PP and others. And that's what we are working on.
There are discussion around a UV marker, naked to the human eye. But easily picked up by a Camera.
I am not aware of landfill reclamations processes or technology . Sorry, its not my cup of tea.
@@fredpinczuk7352 neat
This technology could get a boost if or when the consumers create a demand for it. Willing to pay the price to drag that price tag down.
Except consumers don't create plastic, nor do they demand it with their food. What they demand is the product contained within the plastic. Manufacturers make plastic products by the ton, retailers distribute them by the ton -- and consumers are supposed to recycle it all in their garages and local soring sheds? Here's what you do: MickeyD (and everyone else) charges an extra 3 cents for a plastic soda straw or an extra 2 cents for an optional air-carbon straw. Same-o with other plastics. Or some freakin' variation thereof.
@@generybarczyk6993 while what you said is true. Consumers have quite a lot of power over the market. A lot of people can mess up manufacturers and retailers, just by changing where their wallets go. Which then affects the revenue of said companies.
@@gre3nishsinx0Rgold4 True enough. But manufacturers and distributors have the advantage of unified management and significant financial incentive, whereas consumers act individually or as part of voluntary social groups, at best. In the long run, the weight of the marketplace may bring the supply side to heel, but we will likely be dealing with a variety of even larger environmental catastrophes at that point. Obviously, the supply side is aware of the problem. Are they awaiting permission from consumers to take action?
This series gives me hope:)
Fantastic guys……..!!!
this actually is a cool idea
let's hope that they'll manage to do this shift
Good Luck 🤞
How did this video fail entirely to mention the fact that fishing nets are *far and away* the number one source of pollution in our oceans?
Here lies my routine comment for thy algorithm! Great channel!
Really cool
You folks all need a hug
Seems almost too good to be true. That is wonderful.
Let's get this some attention of investors....
How to deal with plastics:
Feed them to the mealworms(they can digest it)
Recycle it(too expensive)
Burn it(Pollution)
Feed it to the mushrooms(they can also digest it)
Anything else you can think of
Mark is dreamie :)
So to get rid of plastic and only pay an excess of 50% of plastic.. wow and we are not grasping it with both hands 😞😓😩😤😡
This guy is amazing
Since solar power cannot exist without petroleum, we should take all the money subsidizing solar research and dedicate it to this truly world-saving technology, perhaps even subsidizing it to make it affordable the way we have solar.
Can he make me a spool of Air-carbon 3d printer filament?!
We live in a horrible world. Smh.
A commitment from the federal government to tax petro plastics would lower the cost differential and help this company, and others like it, get to market scale more quickly.
The thing is, they don't even need to add taxes to oil companies, they would just need to cut back on subsidies.
@@darksunrise957 Yes, that, too.
nice
What about to open source the technology? So, everybody can replicate the plastic. It will be faster and better for the planet and for us. If the company has a patent, then it will take 20 years to expire.
don't worry, as soon as this company patents it, China will make it 'open source'.
Companies like ICI and Monsanto have worked on PHB since the 80s so I imagine most patents on the polymer have ended by now. Capturing the carbon dioxide is probably still patented however.
this will have 8 million views
right now its at 8 thousand
567,362 views on11-17-21. getting there )
❤❤❤❤☺☺
Save Our Planet
We’ve had this technology for decades if not centuries now.... unfortunately it’ll never change
Don’t the plastic company feel any emotions like anxious or something else ,do they care??
They are just making a product, what people do with them a few steps down the line afterwards isn't their concern.
Nice bandaid., I means its nice to find a plastic one to one alternative but that's still dumb. We need to use reusability products and not need 30 layers of "protection" in everyday packaging as one example. Not creating the waste is the key
by that logic, aren’t banana peels similarly wasteful because you can’t reuse them?
The hilarious thing is they present this as if it is a modern innovation.. It's literally a set back 100 years to the first plastics.
🤩
One word hemp
Get a deal from the company's like Starbucks, Mc,KFC etc. It can help you more in awareness of your products. And complete mission faster.
and we want to displace that with their carbon
Who wants to start a #recycle challenge
Recycle 100% of all your plastic waste for 24 hours
May the Good Father begin again
For years, people focused on arbitrary bans or taxes that had unintended consequences and did nothing to address the real problems/cost of plastics, as these "remedies" were not actually rooted in the issue.
One thing that might help with the competitiveness of this promising alternative might be a focus on robust property rights. In developing metrics to quantify the extent of environmental pollution that results from plastic, we could begin to have truer costs borne by plastic producers that have previously been written of as externalities. Ergo, biomaterials without such liabilities are then more viable.
we already have mycelium plastic, thats cheaper than plastic.
hi! do you mean Ecovative, the packaging company? I'd like to hear of any sources you might share. thank you!!
Why not both? They have different properties and different use cases.
"by 2050 there's projected to be more plastic than fish in the ocean" why do people still quote this statistic that has been wildly out of date for like 15 years now?
Yikes, do you know what the current rate actually is then?
@@velocirapper8862 it's actually much better! Improvements in fishing techniques have made the projections less grim.
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Earth has crossed tipping points in carbon emissions so first order of business should be to stop mass producing and change the way humans live!
Bring back earth to its original state first & then think about to supply ”tonnes & pounds” of plastic alternative to all humans.
Would like to learn your thoughts on this!
@@set65 those rich people getting off the planet and there are humans who choose to stay on earth,
That is very very nice!! Lately I've been seeing some great alternatives and solutions for the human impact on the planet. But something I always notice is the lack of diversity within those companies, which are mostly white and male centered (not to mention hetero and cis also).
And I would say it's OK but it's not, really. Honesty, we are in 2021 and life on Earth as we know it is on the verge of collapse! So I'm sure that if you and all those other innovative companies had more internal diversity in terms of people and backgrounds then the world would definitely start seeing major differences and actual impacts.
So yes, we (and you) should include all ethnicities, genders and gender identities, sexual orientations, ages, experiences and with all their personal histories to tell and to contribute with.
Only they humanity might have the opportunity to continue for another century ou millennia... Otherwise We Are All Lost Anyway ... ... ...
Just be human and work with all other kinds of humans, for humanity!
Please contact us for investment opportunities
I find it interesting how people seem to think oil based products are not ' bio ' in origin. Whether or not the final product is biodegradable is a separate issue, but raw oil extracted from the earth is 100% natural organic material, formed by natural processes from natural organic sources.
And most of the plastics don't even come from America and Europe.
Thanks for not drinking the Kool-aid.
Hi from YNAO🙌
💀Putin mafia💀 watch it and cry, they monopoly will fall😋
This planet destruction is not cyclic or natural, I think it's time to start saving life instead.
Most of the plastic in the ocean is actually from fishing nets that commercial fishing boats use, get damaged and get dumped at the ocean, because they don't want to carry it to land.
No it's from countries like China just mass dumping garbage into the ocean, for 30 years they were supposedly taking the US' recyclables and recycling them but in reality they were only taking specific plastics that made them the most money and just dumping the rest in the ocean since it was more cost effective than actually doing what they were paid for.
Sad bit is that vandalising useless hippies will then claim all credits for saving the world by doing absolutely nothing while these heroes will be forgotten. Nevertheless, these men are just mind boggling smart.
Drunk?
"Useless hippies" are the pioneers developing biodegradable plastic.
Too bad it's not the solution, the degradation products of these plastics can have effects on the envoirement too. This doesn't solve pollution, this hides it
You may have missed the details.
Here are the facts:
PHA is 100% recyclable. So as long as you have a recycling stream that will handle the material. No issue there.
PHA is 100% compostable. So if it ends up in commercial composting. Its actually a+ since it acts like an appetizer for the bacterium to start and accelerate the decomposing process.
PHA is 100% Biodegradable, including in the most sensitive environment (Ocean's). Bacteria's simply consume it and continue to the live cycle. And most importantly, if it wears or breakdown into microplastics. Its absorbed by the body without harm.
You need to remember that PHA was invented over 50 years ago specifically for the medical field. Its found its 1st use in internal surgery, where it will simply dissolve in the human body and as a drug delivery system.
So to your point, what effects does these plastic have on the environment? What are those effects you are claiming?
Suggest you read the following book by Prof Joseph Greene. And educate yourself on the subject.
www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00NV73K06/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_hsch_vapi_tkin_p1_i0
You use both tonnes and pounds in the first 20 seconds of this video. What weight system are you using to express your point??? Is it metric or imperial, from where I’m sitting you used which ever one suited your point better at the time. Classic propaganda and fear mongering
Ciaran McCormack - Way to concentrate on the unimportant, well done!
@@rolliebca no Rolland I focused on the most important point. Leftist media spewing propaganda at every opportunity
@@ciaranmccormack4434
Tons and pounds... as in imperial tons.
1 ton=2000 pounds.
You're right about the propaganda, but it's still a cool idea.
Should they find a way to create their base materials without creating more pollution than they claim to prevent, I might be interested in supporting the effort.
The honest truth is that the whole premise of their idea is flawed.
Plastic is useful as a storage container precisely because it doesn't break down.
Once you get a bacteria on a the outside of one of their bottles, which is both harmful to humans and able to feed on their plastic substitute, you have the end of their company.
The planet is in no danger so we don't have to save it
what why? you think climate change is fake?
@@Victor-oy8bj most likely
@@agentxcompany do more research, climate change is real
@@Victor-oy8bj it depends who you research. There are several scientist that are saying that climate change is not real
@@agentxcompany based on what evidence? and are they really a scientist? and based what field do they study? if they're a scientist who studied insects you wouldn't ask them to make conclusions on quantum science. 99% of scientists who focus all of their time towards the science of climate change agree that it is real.