Coffee sunglasses, cotton biofuel cells, evolving yeasts, biobased boat stickers, microalgae chemicals, potato plastic, bioplastic shoes: The Digest’s Top 10 Innovations for the week of December 5th

#2 Biobased prototype shoe holds up for marathon

In New York, a pair of shoes made from elastomeric bioplastics held up during the grueling New York City Marathon on November 4th The shoes were made from Terratek bioplastic produced by Green Dot Bioplastics in Emporia, Kansas.
“[Terratek is] quite strong and tough but if you put it in a composting environment it will biodegrade within 180 days,” Kevin Ireland, communications manager for Green Dot, tells the Emporia Gazette. “It’s also biodegradable in a home-composting environment, so it kind of has the best of both worlds. It’s a strong, durable material but it can also be returned to nature when it’s useful life has ended.”
Mark Semler, CEO for the Medical University of South Carolina’s Zucker Institute Applied Neurosciences, ran the race as a fundraiser for AIDS orphans in Uganda. He learned about Terratek through his work with the Nyaka AIDS Orphan Project, which Green Dot Plastics chairman Mark Mahoney is also involved with. Berlin’s BioInspirations helped design the shoes.
More on the story, here.