CES 2023 has been the venue for the announcement of many new technologies, but an invention that turns plastic into food might just be one of the best ones. The idea is among the many solutions that scientists are looking into for the food supply in space.
Sustainable Dining
Food supply can become an issue for astronauts in space since they can't exactly just go back and forth from Earth to buy groceries. This is why their food is preserved in sealed bags and sometimes dried to prolong its shelf life.
NASA, JAXA, and the European Space Agency are working on something that will change this by partnering with the food business. According to Interesting Engineering, a panel of experts mentioned that one of their solutions is to turn plastic waste into food.
The food technology to be used for the idea is already being developed by Beehex, wherein the meals will be 3D-printed and provide astronauts with exact and individual meals in microgravity. The company was founded by NASA-affiliated engineer and entrepreneur, Anja Contractor.
The machine appears to look like a shipment container, but it will be divided into different compartments that have different roles. One part will serve as the collector of plastic waste, where it will then be shredded.
Once the collected plastic has been processed, it will move into the bioreactor which contains bacteria that will consume the plastic. The engineered bacteria within the machine are able to convert plastic to biomass, which in turn is used to produce various textures and shapes.
The project is funded by DARPA (Defense Advance Research Projects Agency) which is an agency backed by the government. Contractor mentioned that the container was to be used in food disaster relief operations first.
The target market appears to be the US Army or Marine Corps since according to Anja Contractor, it's the most "tangible" plan. He added that the market was marked in the range of half a billion to $1 billion.
What It Could Mean for Our Own Planet
It's no secret that we produce way too much waste that waste management systems can't keep up anymore. We produce so much plastic that every year, we generate about 400 million tons of plastic waste.
This has been an issue that is worsened by single-use plastic like disposable utensils and packaging. 85% of these plastics end up in landfills or become unregulated waste, as mentioned by the UN. The rest are either recycled, mismanaged, or lost to the environment.
There are many types of plastics. Polyethylene terephthalate is used for water bottles and containers, high-density polyethylene is used for things like shampoo bottles, low-density polyethylene is used for things like bags and packaging, and so on.
The presentation of the invention for converting plastic waste to food did not disclose whether there are specific plastics needed. Regardless, it could still widely contribute to the management of plastic waste as well as the shortage of food in some areas.
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