Iowa State University consortium partners with industry to solve waste issues
In Iowa, the Polymer and Food Protection Consortium at Iowa State University said it is working with some of the largest companies in Iowa and around the world to help make their products safer and more sustainable.
The consortium’s mission is to create new uses for waste materials that would otherwise be landfilled. That includes single-use plastics and food and agricultural wastes as diverse as rice hulls, chaff from roasted coffee beans and corn cobs.
Keith Vorst, director of the consortium and an associate professor in food science and human nutrition, said: “Unfortunately, most of the things people think are being recycled are not. For example, only about 9% of the total plastic waste stream gets recycled. We want to close the loop by taking the waste people are putting in their blue bins, or semi-trucks or train cars, and actually get it recycled.”
The consortium noted that it does this by looking at every step in the recycling and manufacturing process, from materials formulation, waste stream separation and collection, wrapping and packaging, and all the related considerations, including sanitation and food safety, shelf-life extension and odor characterization and mitigation.
Category: Research
