This week’s Top 8 Innovations are offering up real solutions to real problems. Biologists have been testing biopolymer blocks for coral reef restoration giving hope for ocean biodiversity, while a startup is turning invasive fish species lionfish into a sustainable alternative to cow leather. In today’s Digest, check out these marine bioinnovations as well […]
In the UK, Scottish start-up Eco Clean is undertaking a research project with experts from the University of St Andrews to develop a new process that uses by-products from fish farming to produce surfactants – one of the main components in detergents and other industrial and institutional cleaning products. With six-figure funding support from the […]
The dream of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is closer than you may think with an entire village called Cacao Eco Village being planned in Ecuador using renewable construction materials including 3D printed cacao waste. It comes complete with an education and research center and of course, a chocolate factory. And cleaning with fish waste […]
In Scotland, a startup with six-figure funding support from the Industrial Biotechnology Innovation Centre is developing a surfactant from fish farming byproducts. Fish oils account for about a quarter of aquaculture’s total by-product output. Such oils are rich in fatty acids and can be converted into biofuels, but Eco Clean believes biosurfactants for use in […]
In China, a researcher team at Tianjin University has developed what it calls the world’s most sustainable bioplastic using “natural DNA,” which sounds reasonable before it nonchalantly reveals the source of the DNA to be salmon sperm. The retrieval procedure was not described, but once on hand, the DNA was extracted and mixed with a […]
It’s almost the weekend so let’s celebrate this week’s crazy and amazing innovations. From Coldplay’s “sustainable tour” emitting half the CO2 emissions as the previous tour with a bamboo stage, biodegradable glitter and renewable energy, to fish guts turned into fashion, apple-growing sneakers, and biodegradable underwear, these cool innovations are pretty darn exciting. In today’s […]
Hot news in from McDonald’s which is phasing out fossil fuel-based plastic from its Happy Meal toys in more than 100 countries as it transitions to mostly recycled and renewable plastics and sustainable fibers by 2025. In France, smelly fish waste is being turned into beautiful tiles that resemble marble. In the Netherlands, the […]
We’ve all seen the horrific photos of ocean trash, much of it consisting of plastic fishing nets, but now biodegradable fishing nets made from algae and other biobased materials are on the uptake. Speaking of algae, in Italy, home-grown algae is being encouraged so folks can both purify their air and provide food right from […]
Sex sells but now it can even be more sustainable with a boudoir brand’s new biodegradable adult toy line that uses corn starch-based biopolymer biolene. Going to the other extreme of non-sexy, Canadian researchers converted fish guts, heads, bones and skin into a biodegradable replacement for polyurethane. In today’s Digest, a huge $700 million investment […]
In Newfoundland, researchers at Memorial University have described a process to turn fish heads, bones, skin and guts into a biodegradable replacement for polyurethane. The researchers first extracted oil from Atlantic salmon waste polymer, then added oxygen to form epoxides. When reacted with carbon dioxide, the epoxides become connected by nitrogen-containing amines, creating a new […]
