Latest news with #biodegradable
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Health
- Yahoo
Scientists Create Biodegradable Plastic Alternative That's Literally Alive
Swiss scientists have created a new plastic-like material that's flexible, biodegradable, and even edible. The secret? It's still alive. The material, which was created by a team from Empa in Switzerland, manages to balance biodegradability with toughness and versatility – a feat that is far from easy in materials science. The researchers processed fibers from the mycelium (the root-like part) of the split-gill mushroom (Schizophyllum commune) into a liquid mixture, without actually killing them off or destroying their natural biological functions. The resulting gel-like material is called living fiber dispersions, or LFD, and it can be molded into many different forms. It also makes full use of the extra substances produced by mushrooms, where other biomaterials might just use the core fungal cells. "The fungus uses this extracellular matrix to give itself structure and other functional properties," says materials scientist Ashutosh Sinha, from Empa. "Why shouldn't we do the same?" By developing a specific strain of the split-gill, the researchers were able to encourage the growth of two molecules in particular: polysaccharide schizophyllan and hydrophobin. These molecules are crucial in giving LFD its appealing properties. One possible use of the material is as a thin film with a very high tensile strength. The researchers suggest it could potentially be used in compost bags that naturally rot away as well as composting their contents, or in super-thin biodegradable batteries. LFD also works well as an emulsifier, a substance that enables two other materials to mix and bind together when they otherwise wouldn't. Emulsifiers are important in food and cosmetics production, found in everything from ice cream to shampoo. Because it's still alive, the fungus keeps releasing more of its key molecules. "This is probably the only type of emulsion that becomes more stable over time," says Sinha. And because it comes from the edible S. commune mushroom, this LFD is completely non-toxic too – you can even eat it without any problems. When it comes to foods and cosmetics, that's another big plus for the material. There's the potential for plenty of future research here too, because the team thinks that the approach used here could be tweaked to produce materials with other specific properties, like an on-demand materials maker. Scientists will often look to nature for inspiration, whether they're developing drug delivery methods or building robots, and we're seeing an increasing number of studies investigating fungi as a foundation for new materials. Fungi-based biomaterials could act as alternatives to plastic, and to form clothes that are able to repair themselves. There's a lot of benefit in materials that combine the natural and the synthetic. The researchers are hoping to find more and more practical uses for LFD over time, following in a long line of materials inspired by nature – evidence that the natural world around us is the best lab there is. "Biodegradable materials always react to their environment," says materials scientist Gustav Nyström, from Empa. "We want to find applications where this interaction is not a hindrance but maybe even an advantage." The research has been published in Advanced Materials. Uploading The Human Mind Could Become a Reality, Expert Says Scientists Developed a Kind of 'Living Concrete' That Heals Its Own Cracks World's First CRISPR-Edited Spiders Shoot Fluoro Red Silk From Their Butts
South China Morning Post
5 days ago
- Science
- South China Morning Post
Edible plastic idea earns teen inventors top prize in social innovation challenge
[The content of this article has been produced by our advertising partner.] Four teenage girls have won an inter-school competition that encourages students to create innovative projects that address environmental and societal challenges by creating an edible 'plastic' made from biodegradable materials to reduce single-use waste. Comprising four Form Three students from Good Hope School, the winning team was awarded the top prize in the junior secondary category of the Seek Our Ways Social Ideation Programme for their creation of an edible and biodegradable composite as an alternative to traditional plastic. Supported by Hang Seng Bank and organised by the Leadership Institute of The Hong Kong Federation of Youth Groups (HKFYG), the programme encourages young people to develop innovative ideas that promote environmental and sustainable development, sports for all and elderly and wellness. The inaugural edition of the programme was met with an enthusiastic response, attracting nearly 1,000 applications from secondary and tertiary students. After a rigorous selection process, over 400 students were chosen to form teams. Diana Cesar, Executive Director and Chief Executive of Hang Seng Bank said the Bank is proud to put their network, expertise and resources behind young social innovators. Over six months, the participating teams dedicated over 10,000 hours to experiential learning and mentorship guided by social leaders and professionals. Their efforts culminated in nearly 90 socially innovative proposals meant to advance the public Cesar, Executive Director and Chief Executive of Hang Seng Bank, said, 'As Hong Kong's largest local bank, Hang Seng Bank is proud to put our network, expertise, and resources behind young social innovators. Programmes like this demonstrate how we turn belief in the next generation into action – equipping students to tackle real-world challenges while expanding their own potential.' The junior secondary champions, including 15-year-olds Ho Lok-ting, Law Hau-wing, Lo Sin-sum and Tsang Lok-yu, were inspired to act after learning about the high mortality risk sea turtles face due to plastic ingestion.
Yahoo
25-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
'Proving people wrong on our plastic solution is my boldest achievement'
Insiya Jafferjee has always taken an ambitious approach to engineering — ever since she made robots swim across the bathtub as a child. Fast forward to her burgeoning business career and, last month, she received a Veuve Clicquot Bold Woman Award at the Royal Opera House for her achievements at Shellworks, a London-based start-up which turns bacteria into biodegradable materials and performs like plastic. Read More: 'Why we set up a sustainable mobile operator to save people money' Standing on stage to receive her award, which celebrates female entrepreneurs of the future, she noted how Madame Clicquot had revolutionised an age-old industry in champagne making and why her company had similar aspirations. 'We're really trying to take on an industry that hasn't been disrupted and doesn't want to be disrupted,' the 33-year-old tells Yahoo Finance UK. 'And you kind of need that naivety outside to be able to do it.' The Bold Woman judges said they were impressed by Jafferjee and her co-founder Amir Afshar's commitment to building a company that had significant scale since launching in 2019. It has already replaced 40 tonnes of plastic and 1.2 million units of packaging and is on track for £4.5m in revenue in 2025. 'We are very ambitious and we have been quite ruthless about it,' she added. 'People often doubt that what we do is even possible. Proving them wrong at every stage has been my boldest and bravest achievement.' The company name was born out of initially extracting shellfish waste into a versatile, biodegradable bioplastic. However the founders, who met at Imperial College, realised from the outset it would be hard to scale and made the first of several pivots into creating the world's first biodegradable material that is durable enough to withstand heat and humidity. Vivomer, says Jafferjee, is the perfect plastic replacement. A polymer grown by microorganisms that breaks down naturally in any environment, it also has a longer shelf life. Nature's answer to plastic, adds Jafferjee. 'When you look at the fundamental technology, you are able to grow a polymer in the cell of a microorganism and you kind of scale that up using fermentation, similar to what we do for food,' she says. Read More: The life lesson behind a 335-year-old funeral business? 'Never sleep on an argument' 'What is amazing is that material, when you take it out of the cell, behaves just like a plastic. But when you put it back into a natural environment, that could be a soil, marine or landfill, it can be degraded by the same microorganisms. 'Amir and I would always say, 'Wouldn't it be amazing if you had a material that did everything that you wanted plastic to do, but only when you threw it away, it would degrade'. When we found something like this, we really tried to understand why it hasn't been scaled because it is really the true solution to plastic.' Making materials from shellfish waste saw unique headlines which left the start-up fielding several hundred enquiries a day. In 2023, they had also around 200 largely smaller brand customers in its pipeline and paused most of their operations. Shellworks, which employs around 20 staff, then spent six weeks calling every industry to gauge where it could pivot and accrue faster close rates. 'I don't know anything other than trying to do like 200 million units in 12 months right out of the gate and very high quality,' admits Jafferjee. Hailing from Sri Lanka, resilience has also played its part in being able to deal with risk and pressure in business — the business suffered a fire in 2021 and had to restart operations by purchasing machines at auction — and leveraging her skill set. 'The environment itself forces you to be quite resilient because we've always gone through hardship and grew up during a war, the economy is always on and off and nothing is ever certain,' she says. Read More: Meet the company that finds 'must-haves' to make everyday life easier As is Jafferjee's wont, she has focused on fast growth thanks to a background in large-scale manufacturing and operations, having interned at Ford (F) and worked at Apple (AAPL) for nearly three years before moving to London and setting up Shellworks. 'I used to have this frustration with Apple where they have such incredible people, but I always felt like we're leveraging these people to make a product versus being able to do something that's really world-changing.' Shellworks still had to overcome scepticism as to whether their production was 'truly green', but they now partner with major retailers including Tesco (TSCO.L) and Boots and count companies such as Wild Cosmetics, which was purchased by Unilever (ULVR.L) recently, as a client. The latter could also be a game-changer for Shellworks as it aims to hit £10m revenue come 2026, having received around £7.5m in funding from global investors. 'I really do think it is scale that enables us to actually truly compete with petrochemical plastic, because they operate on such a great magnitude than we do,' says Jafferjee. 'I think a lot of people know for a long time that plastics have kind of been vilified in terms of consumers hating it, it's a material and everyone wants to get rid of it." The entrepreneur says that Shellworks remains naive and sometimes overestimates what it can achieve as a biotech start-up. Yet optimism abounds, just as her Bold Future award showcases. 'But we always shoot for the moon and then hope that we can meet it,' she adds. Read more: Meet the 'jokers from London' who sold 100,000 blocks of butter in first 10 weeks 'My sofa took six months to arrive — so I built a £20m business' 'I paid myself £4 an hour to get my Rollr deodorant off the ground'Sign in to access your portfolio
Yahoo
25-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
The boss who has found ‘nature's answer to plastic'
Insiya Jafferjee has always taken an ambitious approach to engineering — ever since she made robots swim across the bathtub as a child. Fast forward to her burgeoning business career and, last month, she received a Veuve Clicquot Bold Woman Award at the Royal Opera House for her achievements at Shellworks, a London-based start-up which turns bacteria into biodegradable materials and performs like plastic. Read More: 'Why we set up a sustainable mobile operator to save people money' Standing on stage to receive her award, which celebrates female entrepreneurs of the future, she noted how Madame Clicquot had revolutionised an age-old industry in champagne making and why her company had similar aspirations. 'We're really trying to take on an industry that hasn't been disrupted and doesn't want to be disrupted,' the 33-year-old tells Yahoo Finance UK. 'And you kind of need that naivety outside to be able to do it.' The Bold Woman judges said they were impressed by Jafferjee and her co-founder Amir Afshar's commitment to building a company that had significant scale since launching in 2019. It has already replaced 40 tonnes of plastic and 1.2 million units of packaging and is on track for £4.5m in revenue in 2025. 'We are very ambitious and we have been quite ruthless about it,' she added. 'People often doubt that what we do is even possible. Proving them wrong at every stage has been my boldest and bravest achievement.' The company name was born out of initially extracting shellfish waste into a versatile, biodegradable bioplastic. However the founders, who met at Imperial College, realised from the outset it would be hard to scale and made the first of several pivots into creating the world's first biodegradable material that is durable enough to withstand heat and humidity. Vivomer, says Jafferjee, is the perfect plastic replacement. A polymer grown by microorganisms that breaks down naturally in any environment, it also has a longer shelf life. Nature's answer to plastic, adds Jafferjee. 'When you look at the fundamental technology, you are able to grow a polymer in the cell of a microorganism and you kind of scale that up using fermentation, similar to what we do for food,' she says. Read More: The life lesson behind a 335-year-old funeral business? 'Never sleep on an argument' 'What is amazing is that material, when you take it out of the cell, behaves just like a plastic. But when you put it back into a natural environment, that could be a soil, marine or landfill, it can be degraded by the same microorganisms. 'Amir and I would always say, 'Wouldn't it be amazing if you had a material that did everything that you wanted plastic to do, but only when you threw it away, it would degrade'. When we found something like this, we really tried to understand why it hasn't been scaled because it is really the true solution to plastic.' Making materials from shellfish waste saw unique headlines which left the start-up fielding several hundred enquiries a day. In 2023, they had also around 200 largely smaller brand customers in its pipeline and paused most of their operations. Shellworks, which employs around 20 staff, then spent six weeks calling every industry to gauge where it could pivot and accrue faster close rates. 'I don't know anything other than trying to do like 200 million units in 12 months right out of the gate and very high quality,' admits Jafferjee. Hailing from Sri Lanka, resilience has also played its part in being able to deal with risk and pressure in business — the business suffered a fire in 2021 and had to restart operations by purchasing machines at auction — and leveraging her skill set. 'The environment itself forces you to be quite resilient because we've always gone through hardship and grew up during a war, the economy is always on and off and nothing is ever certain,' she says. Read More: Meet the company that finds 'must-haves' to make everyday life easier As is Jafferjee's wont, she has focused on fast growth thanks to a background in large-scale manufacturing and operations, having interned at Ford (F) and worked at Apple (AAPL) for nearly three years before moving to London and setting up Shellworks. 'I used to have this frustration with Apple where they have such incredible people, but I always felt like we're leveraging these people to make a product versus being able to do something that's really world-changing.' Shellworks still had to overcome scepticism as to whether their production was 'truly green', but they now partner with major retailers including Tesco (TSCO.L) and Boots and count companies such as Wild Cosmetics, which was purchased by Unilever (ULVR.L) recently, as a client. The latter could also be a game-changer for Shellworks as it aims to hit £10m revenue come 2026, having received around £7.5m in funding from global investors. 'I really do think it is scale that enables us to actually truly compete with petrochemical plastic, because they operate on such a great magnitude than we do,' says Jafferjee. 'I think a lot of people know for a long time that plastics have kind of been vilified in terms of consumers hating it, it's a material and everyone wants to get rid of it." The entrepreneur says that Shellworks remains naive and sometimes overestimates what it can achieve as a biotech start-up. Yet optimism abounds, just as her Bold Future award showcases. 'But we always shoot for the moon and then hope that we can meet it,' she adds. Read more: Meet the 'jokers from London' who sold 100,000 blocks of butter in first 10 weeks 'My sofa took six months to arrive — so I built a £20m business' 'I paid myself £4 an hour to get my Rollr deodorant off the ground'
Yahoo
25-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
'Proving people wrong on our plastic solution is my boldest achievement'
Insiya Jafferjee has always taken an ambitious approach to engineering — ever since she made robots swim across the bathtub as a child. Fast forward to her burgeoning business career and, last month, she received a Veuve Clicquot Bold Woman Award at the Royal Opera House for her achievements at Shellworks, a London-based start-up which turns bacteria into biodegradable materials and performs like plastic. Read More: 'Why we set up a sustainable mobile operator to save people money' Standing on stage to receive her award, which celebrates female entrepreneurs of the future, she noted how Madame Clicquot had revolutionised an age-old industry in champagne making and why her company had similar aspirations. 'We're really trying to take on an industry that hasn't been disrupted and doesn't want to be disrupted,' the 33-year-old tells Yahoo Finance UK. 'And you kind of need that naivety outside to be able to do it.' The Bold Woman judges said they were impressed by Jafferjee and her co-founder Amir Afshar's commitment to building a company that had significant scale since launching in 2019. It has already replaced 40 tonnes of plastic and 1.2 million units of packaging and is on track for £4.5m in revenue in 2025. 'We are very ambitious and we have been quite ruthless about it,' she added. 'People often doubt that what we do is even possible. Proving them wrong at every stage has been my boldest and bravest achievement.' The company name was born out of initially extracting shellfish waste into a versatile, biodegradable bioplastic. However the founders, who met at Imperial College, realised from the outset it would be hard to scale and made the first of several pivots into creating the world's first biodegradable material that is durable enough to withstand heat and humidity. Vivomer, says Jafferjee, is the perfect plastic replacement. A polymer grown by microorganisms that breaks down naturally in any environment, it also has a longer shelf life. Nature's answer to plastic, adds Jafferjee. 'When you look at the fundamental technology, you are able to grow a polymer in the cell of a microorganism and you kind of scale that up using fermentation, similar to what we do for food,' she says. Read More: The life lesson behind a 335-year-old funeral business? 'Never sleep on an argument' 'What is amazing is that material, when you take it out of the cell, behaves just like a plastic. But when you put it back into a natural environment, that could be a soil, marine or landfill, it can be degraded by the same microorganisms. 'Amir and I would always say, 'Wouldn't it be amazing if you had a material that did everything that you wanted plastic to do, but only when you threw it away, it would degrade'. When we found something like this, we really tried to understand why it hasn't been scaled because it is really the true solution to plastic.' Making materials from shellfish waste saw unique headlines which left the start-up fielding several hundred enquiries a day. In 2023, they had also around 200 largely smaller brand customers in its pipeline and paused most of their operations. Shellworks, which employs around 20 staff, then spent six weeks calling every industry to gauge where it could pivot and accrue faster close rates. 'I don't know anything other than trying to do like 200 million units in 12 months right out of the gate and very high quality,' admits Jafferjee. Hailing from Sri Lanka, resilience has also played its part in being able to deal with risk and pressure in business — the business suffered a fire in 2021 and had to restart operations by purchasing machines at auction — and leveraging her skill set. 'The environment itself forces you to be quite resilient because we've always gone through hardship and grew up during a war, the economy is always on and off and nothing is ever certain,' she says. Read More: Meet the company that finds 'must-haves' to make everyday life easier As is Jafferjee's wont, she has focused on fast growth thanks to a background in large-scale manufacturing and operations, having interned at Ford (F) and worked at Apple (AAPL) for nearly three years before moving to London and setting up Shellworks. 'I used to have this frustration with Apple where they have such incredible people, but I always felt like we're leveraging these people to make a product versus being able to do something that's really world-changing.' Shellworks still had to overcome scepticism as to whether their production was 'truly green', but they now partner with major retailers including Tesco (TSCO.L) and Boots and count companies such as Wild Cosmetics, which was purchased by Unilever (ULVR.L) recently, as a client. The latter could also be a game-changer for Shellworks as it aims to hit £10m revenue come 2026, having received around £7.5m in funding from global investors. 'I really do think it is scale that enables us to actually truly compete with petrochemical plastic, because they operate on such a great magnitude than we do,' says Jafferjee. 'I think a lot of people know for a long time that plastics have kind of been vilified in terms of consumers hating it, it's a material and everyone wants to get rid of it." The entrepreneur says that Shellworks remains naive and sometimes overestimates what it can achieve as a biotech start-up. Yet optimism abounds, just as her Bold Future award showcases. 'But we always shoot for the moon and then hope that we can meet it,' she adds. Read more: Meet the 'jokers from London' who sold 100,000 blocks of butter in first 10 weeks 'My sofa took six months to arrive — so I built a £20m business' 'I paid myself £4 an hour to get my Rollr deodorant off the ground'Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
