Tech Briefs Magazine - November 2021 - 28

GRAND PRIZE WINNER
Winner of $25,000
SELF-DESTRUCTING PLASTICS VIA EMBEDDED ENZYMES
Aaron Hall, Chris DelRe, Ivan Jayapurna, and Ting Xu
Intropic Materials
Oakland, CA
D
espite efforts to sort and recycle, less than 9% of plastic
gets recycled in the U.S. and most ends up in landfill or
the environment. Approximately 8.3 billion metric tons of
plastic have been produced and 6.3 billion metric tons have
become waste. But we need plastic packages - they keep
food safe, medical equipment sterile, and are integral for so
much of our modern way of life.
Most biodegradable plastics take months to break down
and when they finally do, they form microplastics - tiny bits
of plastic that can end up in oceans and animals' bodies
including our own. While recycling it all would be preferable,
the reality is that there isn't enough infrastructure, it's
expensive to build, and the economics of recycling are not
that attractive.
Compostable plastics have entered the market - estimated
to be a $215 billion market by 2027 - but these products
still need rare industrial composting to properly break
down. Further, since composters need to degrade quickly,
the usable designs tend to be limited to thin bags or cups;
otherwise, they hold up the line and start costing the composters
money.
With this new technology, trace amounts of enzymes are
embedded into the plastics during manufacturing. Once
triggered, the enzyme-embedded plastics self-destruct, completely
degrading and eliminating microplastics in days -
not months or years. This process is activated with accessible
conditions like compost or simple hot water baths. It is
scalable, compatible with commercially relevant thermal
processing, and can be engineered to work with a variety
of plastics.
Since these products degrade from the inside out, a much
wider range of thick, heavy-duty, or rigid product designs
are accessible. Further, should the monomers be recaptured,
they can be chemically recycled back into new plastics.
28
Cov
plastics " At Intropic, we're making self-destructing
to address the challenge of plastic waste.
We do this using our core technology, which lets
us embed plastic-degrading enzymes directly
inside those plastics. I like to think of that
technology as the personal protective equipment
(PPE) of the protein. Once we trigger it to come
alive, the materials just completely degrade in
days, not years, without microplastics. It leaves
behind only simple, small molecules that can be
either composted or made into new plastics.
By bringing together the natural bio-machine
and the synthetic materials, we can help bring
to fruition a truly circular bio-economy.
Cheers to creating a better future!
Aaron "
Hall
Developing a very affordable and easily compostable plastic
film could incentivize produce manufacturers to package
fresh fruits and vegetables with compostable plastic instead of
single-use plastic wrap and as a result, save organic waste
facilities the extra expense of investing in expensive plasticdepackaging
machines.
For more information, visit
https://contest.techbriefs.com/2021/entries/11344
www.techbriefs.com
ToC
Tech Briefs, November 2021
https://contest.techbriefs.com/2021/entries/11344 http://www.techbriefs.com http://info.hotims.com/79419-902
Tech Briefs Magazine - November 2021

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