Parley AIR: Innovations driving the Material Revolution
Five nature and waste-based solutions transforming the material world
Humans once looked to the natural world for everything they needed to create their built environment. Clay earth became pots and cups and plates. Grasses were woven into rope or roofs. Flowers dyed clothing.
As humanity’s technology expanded, so did its design failures, none as profoundly harmful as plastic. The world is creating more single-use plastic waste than at any other time in history. Nearly half of plastic has been produced since 2000, and virtually all of this plastic — more than 99% — is made from polymers created from fossil fuels. Even as the evidence of plastic pollution’s alarming pervasiveness raises serious concerns about planetary and human health, fossil fuel corporations are betting on plastic to prop up business through the global shift to renewable energy. To create a future we can survive, we need to do better. Welcome to the Material Revolution.
Scientists, designers, thinkers and pioneering companies are using humanity’s strides in technology to reconfigure harmful, wasteful products into ones that leave a minimal imprint on this ocean-covered Planet Earth. Some are looking to nature, either for raw materials or for building inspiration from the creatures that do it best. Others are capturing existing drivers of the climate crisis and turning them into plastic alternatives. These innovations are replacing not only plastics, but jet fuels, synthetic dyes and even precious stones.
It’s a defining moment for humanity, a time of existential challenges and exciting opportunities. After leaving COP28, Parley founder Cyrill Gutsch summed up the task: “We need to drive the Material Revolution with all we’ve got, inventing new materials and rapidly scaling the transformation of global supply chains.” The brands that act first to leave harmful, wasteful and exploitative materials and methods in the past will be celebrated as champions of eco-innovation. We’re committed to accelerating and scaling this process with our collaborators.
It all starts with inspiration. As we witnessed at the most recent Biofabricate summit in Paris, the Material Revolution is already underway, powered by the greatest designer on Earth: Nature. Here, we explore five of the many promising innovative directions for new materials.
Stay tuned for more features and interviews with Parley collaborators in our Material Revolution series.
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Mushroom mycelium (Source: Wikimedia Commons)
MUSHROOMS
Mushrooms are one of the most promising and diverse biomaterials. Mycologists – the people who study fungi – estimate Earth is home to around 27,000 different types of mushrooms. Humans haven’t even begun to study some of them yet, but they do know that mycelium – essentially the roots of mushrooms and other fungi that grow underground, on rotting foliage and on tree trunks – are very special.
Mycelium is a type of yeast, but unlike most yeast cells, which grow as one cell, mycelium has many cells that together can make up large structures, i.e. the mushrooms that sprout above ground.
One of the things that makes mycelium so promising is that it’s a natural polymer. Polymers are large molecules made by a bunch of smaller chemicals bonded together. Synthetic polymers like plastic are incredibly good at forming and holding new shapes, which is one reason these toxic synthetic materials are so ubiquitous.
Mycelium is essentially a natural scaffolding that molds itself into different sturdy shapes with a bit of guidance. Mushrooms – which are composed of a bunch of mycelium cells –– can be guided to fill a mold, for example, and become virtually any shape a product designer is looking to create.
Scientists are working to fine-tune the process of harnessing the natural polymers in mushrooms to replace all sorts of different plastics in products. Where it can really shine is as a foam replacement. Simply put, foam is an expanded plastic, and it’s in everything from mattresses to packaging to coolers for food. Once it ends up in a landfill, synthetic foam, like all plastic, lasts virtually forever.
Packaging accounts for more than 82 million tons of trash filling landfills in the United States every year. But even products that are built to last years eventually end up in landfills, meaning it’s imperative that we replace not just single-use plastics, but plastic in every single product, especially those that cannot be recycled.
Take latex foam mattresses, for example. These days, latex foam mattresses – i.e. memory foam – are mostly made from synthetic, plastic-based versions of latex, which not only never break down once discarded, but release volatile organic compounds (VOCs) as we sleep. It doesn’t have to be that way.
As part of the Material Revolution, companies are already turning mushrooms into compostable foam that’s naturally fire and water resistant. This can be used to make lasting products like foam mattresses, but also disposable packaging that’s compostable and not made from oil.
SEAWEED
Buying non-plastic products that are reusable is usually the most sustainable choice, but that isn’t always possible. The next best thing is replacing single-use plastics with natural products that are renewable, aren’t made from fossil fuels, and can break down into compost. That’s where seaweed comes in.
Scientists have identified about 10,000 different types of seaweed, all with their own unique structure. Like mycelium, at its core, all seaweed is built from natural polymers. Scientists are already turning seaweed polymers into plastic replacements. These natural building blocks are particularly good replacements for flexible packaging like films and plastic bags.
Seaweed grows without freshwater – which the world is very short on – and without fertilizer, which is not only only made from petrochemicals (i.e. oil), but is a major source of the microplastics that get into the oceans – and into us. Fertilizers are also creating ultra-polluted dead zones in the oceans, where oxygen levels are so low, sealife can no longer survive.
Several companies are farming seaweed and turning it into compostable or biodegradable packaging that can replace plastic bags that clothing and other products come in, as well as plastic food packaging and coatings (which contain harmful chemicals that leach into the foods and drinks it holds). Polymers extracted from seaweed are also replacing disposable plastic cups and cutlery.
Again, single-use items still require energy and resources to create, but providing an environmentally viable alternative is likely the most realistic choice, given the world’s dependence on single use plastics. Moving forward, it’s important the Material Revolution provides alternatives that help humanity take a step in the right direction and eliminate plastics in sectors where they will otherwise be perpetually created and discarded.
Enzymes
Understanding the role enzymes play in the Material Revolution requires a more in-depth look at science, but they’re an incredibly broad and versatile group of proteins – and sometimes ribonucleic acid (RNA) – that can replace major sources of CO2.
All living beings have enzymes, which carry messages from through the body to the organism’s deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA). Some organisms produce enzymes themselves, while others get them from food. Mostly, it’s a combination of both. Companies are using biotechnology, which alters living organisms, to create better concrete and dyes from enzymes.
Concrete production accounts for 8% of global CO2 emissions. That’s a lot – too much – and it doesn’t have to be that way. One company is working with microorganisms to grow concrete in a lab. They actually took their inspiration from the way corals create their own ultra-sturdy structures. Another company is using microorganisms to create clothing dyes based on biology.
Creating textiles involves some of the most polluting processes in the world. Creating apparel and textiles is responsible for 3% of global CO2 emissions. Dyes are usually made from chemicals, which are responsible for 20% of global water pollution, a 2017 Pulse of the Fashion Industry report. Growing fermented microorganism-based dye works kind of like brewing beer, and it doesn’t require the toxic chemicals found in most synthetic dyes used in the fashion industry. The companies doing this also take their inspiration from nature. Using the planet’s natural color pallet, they’re creating beautiful, biology-based dyes with what grows naturally.
Making sustainable aviation fuel from CO2 at Air Company.
Carbon Dioxide
Carbon dioxide (CO2) is one of the most important planet-warming greenhouse gasses. Thanks to continuous poor design and foresight, we are approaching a point of no return with climate change, unless we can stop pumping it into the atmosphere at the accelerating rates we have been since the Industrial Revolution. If we commit to changing gears, deadly CO2 can also have a role in the Material Revolution.
Some chemists are working to capture the CO2 that’s already heating the planet, and combine it with other molecules (like hydrogen, which is added to reactors via water) to turn it into bioplastics, jet fuel and even diamonds.
Plastic has a huge carbon footprint, so creating a plastic alternative from captured CO2 can be a way to reverse the damage the plastic industry has already caused, without creating more virgin plastic made with fossil fuels.
CO2 can also make some more glamorous products. The diamond mining industry is rife with environmental degradation and human rights abuses. What’s less known is that diamonds are also mined in the sea. This most commonly happens off the coast of Namibia, where nearly 65% of the country’s diamond mining is in the sea.
Not all CO2-based materials lock the gas into new materials. In the case of CO2-based jet fuel, the CO2 used to create the fuel is put back into the atmosphere when it's burned. In this case, the process works more like recycling – preventing planes from emitting new CO2. As of now, this process also requires fresh water for its hydrogen atoms, which is difficult in the face of global fresh water shortages. But thinking about jet fuel in this new way, even if it’s ultimately not made from existing atmospheric CO2, is exactly the kind of thinking that leads to better materials for a cleaner future.
Food Waste
Food packaging and takeout containers make up almost half of the material in landfills in the U.S., the largest producer of plastic waste in the world. In the U.S., food also accounts for up to one-third of a household’s carbon footprint. Food packaging isn’t just a huge source of plastic pollution, food waste itself has a huge carbon footprint. Nearly 40% of land on Earth is used for food production.
There are lots of ways we can tackle the food waste crisis, and some companies are figuring out how to turn food waste – which would otherwise end up in a landfill, where it would rot and release planet-warming methane – into styrofoam. It’s also being explored as a better leather alternative. So-called vegan leathers that have been on the market for decades have environmentally friendly connotations, but it’s usually made from PVC and polyurethane – two forms of plastic.
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