Pasta and Plastic — Part 2: The New Plastics Economy and mobius Updates
This article is Part 2 of a two-part mini series that will attempt to demystify the topic of “plastic” and share updates from mobius and other companies that are part of the New Plastics Economy Global Commitment. Here is a link to Part 1 if you missed it.
A little over a year ago, we announced that mobius joined the New Plastics Economy Global Commitment to create a circular economy for plastics. At the time, we were joined by over 350 organizations, consisting of investors, governments, institutions, and businesses across all stages of the plastic value chain.
Since then, over 100 new organizations have joined this initiative, bringing the total to over 450 signatories (pdf).
We’re excited to share updates from the Global Commitment and from our team at mobius!
what is the global commitment?
For a quick refresher, The Global Commitment is an initiative created by the New Plastics Economy in 2018, an initiative of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, to bring together businesses, governments, and other organizations to rethink and redesign the future of plastics.
The signatories will work to eliminate the plastic items we don’t need; innovate so all plastics we do need are designed to be safely reused, recycled, or composted; and circulate the materials we use to keep them in a closed loop system of biological or technical components, avoiding leakage into the environment.
To create a common vision to unify all of these organizations, there are 6 key characteristics that each of our commitments address:
- Elimination of problematic or unnecessary plastics through redesign, innovation, and new delivery models
- Reuse of materials where applicable, reducing the need for single-use plastics
- All plastics are 100% reusable, recyclable, or compostable
- All plastics are reused, recycled, or composted in practice
- The use of plastics is fully decoupled from the consumption of finite resources
- All plastics are free of hazardous chemicals, and the health, safety, and rights of all people involved are respected
progress in 2019
In March 2019, the Ellen MacArthur Foundation published the first annual report. According to the 2019 Annual Report (pdf), the list of signatories included 5 of the 15 largest retailers in the world and the participating companies accounted for 20% of all plastic packaging produced globally.
Among these organizations, the actions and policies being created and implemented have the potential to make significant impacts on the planet.
“signatories set actions to increase recycling by 5-fold by 2025, which represents over 5 million tonnes of recycled plastic”
This is equivalent to 25 million barrels of oil kept in the ground, 8 million tonnes of CO2 emissions mitigated, or 1.7 million cars permanently kept off the road.
opportunities for 2020
From our perspective, one of the biggest takeaways from the first annual report is 60% of all packaging by weight was reusable, recyclable, or compostable (from member organizations).
Of this 60%, less than 1% of this plastic was compostable.
There are two primary reasons why compostable plastic makes up such a small proportion of the total plastic: 1. compostable plastic is used for targeted applications only (not packaging) and 2. the infrastructure is not widely available to collect and compost these plastics.
Additionally, the Global Commitment acknowledges that it goes above and beyond for something to be considered compostable (pdf).
For a plastic product to be considered compostable within the definitions set by the Global Commitment, it needs to: 1. comply with international compostability standards (ie ISO 18606 and ASTM D-6400), 2. be successfully collected after use by consumers, and 3. be proven to compost at scale in industrial composting environments.
This is where companies like mobius can make an impact.
global commitment updates for mobius
At mobius, our mission is to create a world where There’s Wonder in Waste. We envision a future where forestry, food, and agricultural waste streams are upcycled into valuable chemical and material building blocks. To achieve this vision, we’re combine the tools of chemistry, biology, and engineering to convert industrial organic waste streams into renewable chemicals and materials.
Our current focus is on the development of a new family of biodegradable and compostable plastics made from lignin, a renewable material found in all trees and grasses, and produced at over 100 million tons every year by the paper and biofuel industries.
In alignment with the New Plastics Economy, our commitment is:
“By 2025, all (mobius) products will be made from 100% renewable feedstocks that come from responsibly managed sources, with a minimum of 50% content derived from industrial organic waste streams from food, forestry, and agriculture.”
We’re very excited to share our updates on our commitment.
As of August 2020, we’ve continued to innovate on our biopolymers and completed two manufacturing trials where we produced over 2,000 lbs of our materials. This represents 1,000 pounds of organic waste being mitigated from being sent to the landfill or burned and 3 tonnes of CO2 mitigated from being released in the atmosphere.
These materials were made with over 50% organic waste content (lignin). In some formulations, we used 100% renewable feedstocks to make our materials. We’re always looking to explore new formulations to improve our materials.
Our next steps are to demonstrate that these materials can be used in applications for the agriculture and horticulture industries and that these materials can be biodegradable and/or compostable.
get in touch
Like any startup, we are always looking for new collaborators. If you’re an investor, a brand owner interested in sustainable chemicals and materials, a company that produces organic waste, a retailer wanting to boost your environmental stewardship, a plastic manufacturer, or just a person interested in learning more about our company, we’d love to talk to you!
Also if you’re interested in working with us, we’re planning to hire for several new roles on the mobius team. Feel free to contact us!
