MetaCycler BioInnovations Invents Biodegradable Plastic Made from Dairy Waste
MetaCycler BioInnovations came up with a new answer to the plastic pollution crisis as it continues to worsen in the world and traditional biodegradable options fail-MetaCycler bioplastic is made fully biodegradable from waste in dairy processing.The Velocity startup engineered bacteria to convert the waste produced by milk and cheese production into PHA, a biodegradable polymer. The material has all the flexibility of a traditional plastic but is 100% biodegradable.Unlike many of the other popular biodegradable alternatives, such as paper straws, which typically do not meet performance standards, PHA provides a viable alternative that does not compromise on material properties. The breakthrough process enables the upcycling of dairy industry waste into sustainable plastics, which could reduce food waste and plastic pollution significantly.This project began in Dr. Trevor Charles' biology research lab at the University of Waterloo, where Fairlife, a processing company for dairy products, presented an opportunity by making a challenge and giving Dr. Charles' research team the question of finding the way to create something new by reusing Fairlife's waste. Already having a PhD student with this work project, Aranksha Thakor, she identified and seized this great opportunity to create useful waste using the bio-based plastic.
The co-founder of MetaCycler is Charles, along with Thakor, co-founders Eugenia Dadzie and Nicole LeBlanc, and Jonathan Parkes. MetaCycler received significant funding in just two years from the Waterloo-based incubators, which includes United College's GreenHouse Social Impact program and Velocity. MetaCycler received support from Waterloo's larger ecosystem, that assisted them advance the research as well as their business model.This new bio-plastic solution has several advantages over the currently existing biodegradable materials. Although such alternatives as plastics derived from seaweed or sugarcane are also now being popularly considered, these typically fail to reach the toughness or pliability of their standard plastic counterpart. PHA is designed to mimic the performance of traditional plastics without the associated environmental cost.
MetaCycler uses innovations for sustainability. This company takes the waste from the dairy processing procedure and turns it into the best quality bioplastic, thereby solving two of the biggest environmental challenges at once-food wastage and plastic pollution. This innovative solution addresses the carbon footprint often associated with plastic production while inhibiting the eventual stockpiling of plastics in landfills and oceans.By 2024, Eugenia Dadzie and Nicole LeBlanc enter the Entrepreneurial PhD Fellowship program in the Conrad School of Entrepreneurship and Business, as overall co-founders, where the ultimate end in sight would be to work with their advances through a doctoral degree further towards commercially viable sustainable plastic solutions. Their effort embodies a burgeoning spirit of entrepreneurialism driven through research within the community of scholars at Waterloo.
MetaCycler is a great example of how interdisciplinary research and collaboration can be very powerful. Indeed, it started off just as a research project but within a short period, it turned out to be a successful startup majorly because of the entrepreneurial environment at the University of Waterloo.With the development of the business, the company specializes in increasing its output and collaborating with plastic manufacturers seeking alternative greener materials. In this respect, MetaCycler contributes to efforts to reduce global dependence on plastic waste and the inevitable shift toward sustainability.
Source: MetaCycler BioInnovations, University of Waterloo
