Packaging made from food waste could stop millions of tonnes of produce from landfill, according to scientists who say they've found a way to convert waste into biodegradable plastic wraps and cellophanes. Almost eight million tonnes of food, worth around 40-billion dollars are wasted each year in Australia.
Category
📺
TVTranscript
00:00 And so this process is basically designed on a circular column base.
00:06 So what we do, we collect the food waste and put the bacteria in there to fermentation.
00:13 So after fermentation, we will get the nanocellulose material out of that tank and the rest of
00:18 those will be used as fertilizers.
00:21 So the cellulose material itself is environmental friendly and can be used for food packaging
00:27 and other purposes as well.
00:29 The developments have been ongoing.
00:31 I know you were able to do this a while ago, but what has changed today that has been a
00:38 breakthrough for you?
00:42 So we were able to make this technology work a couple of months ago, but now we're having
00:48 a good progress.
00:49 So we can now make the color more stable and we can also make sure the texture of the film
00:57 is more consistent and uniform.
01:00 And in the meantime, we can incorporate different compounds in there and that will give us different
01:04 functionality, for example, not only in food packaging, but also in wastewater treatment.
01:10 Interesting.
01:11 Why was it important to get the feel and the color right?
01:16 Why does that matter?
01:20 So that's, for example, if in smart packaging, when we're having color change, we know the
01:26 food is almost expired or not good for use anymore.
01:29 But if the color is not consistent, there'll be some variation in there.
01:34 So this step is very important for us to make a more consistent and reliable label for food
01:41 packaging.
01:42 Okay.
01:43 What difference do you feel that it can make to the amount of food waste, if you like,
01:49 that doesn't go into landfill?
01:52 Well, there are two levels to address this question.
01:59 One level is basically using the waste effectively to generate a new and environmentally friendly
02:05 material.
02:06 And the second way of doing that is using these materials, making smart labels.
02:12 So that labels can tell us which package of food you need to use first, and that further
02:17 reduce the amount of food get wasted.
02:20 Oh, okay.
02:21 That's very interesting.
02:22 So I guess you need to look at what the prospects are for wider production of this, what facilities
02:31 are needed, how waste can be collected.
02:33 Is that right?
02:34 Is that the next step?
02:36 Absolutely.
02:39 And we are looking for partners and try to get into the pilot scale stage and eventually
02:46 go for commercialization in the near future.
02:49 What about costs?
02:50 I mean, is the whole process going to be terribly costly?
02:56 All this process is sustainable, and we designed the process.
03:02 The first thing to think of is the cost issue.
03:05 So because we are using food waste and we have relatively low cost for getting the fermentation
03:11 media down, and also the whole process can be done at room temperature with less energy
03:17 input.
03:18 So basically, the whole process is designed as a low cost point of view.
03:23 Okay, that's interesting.
03:25 What about, I know you're always evolving and looking at the next thing, and you mentioned
03:29 a bit of it before, wastewater.
03:31 What are the next developments that you're working on?
03:37 So we are working on two things.
03:39 One is basically going to the pilot scale and eventually go to the industry level production.
03:45 And the second one is looking at different applications of the materials, using wastewater
03:50 treatment, for example, to capture those pollutants in water system with embedded water compounds
03:56 in there.
03:57 And the second thing will be in medical area.
03:58 So basically embed medicine there, and if someone gets burnt, and with this material
04:04 on top of that, it makes the healing much better and much faster.
04:08 [BLANK_AUDIO]