{"id":94676,"date":"2018-08-01T17:42:15","date_gmt":"2018-08-01T21:42:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.biofuelsdigest.com\/bdigest\/?p=94676"},"modified":"2018-08-02T13:39:55","modified_gmt":"2018-08-02T17:39:55","slug":"the-digests-top-10-innovations-for-the-week-of-august-2nd-in-todays-digest-waste-plastics-for-fuels-and-sneakers-eggs-without-the-chicken-3d-printing-algae-based-ketchup-packagi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.biofuelsdigest.com\/bdigest\/the-digests-top-10-innovations-for-the-week-of-august-2nd-in-todays-digest-waste-plastics-for-fuels-and-sneakers-eggs-without-the-chicken-3d-printing-algae-based-ketchup-packagi\/","title":{"rendered":"The Digest\u2019s Top 10 Innovations for the week of August 2nd: waste plastics for fuels and sneakers, eggs without the chicken, 3D printing, algae-based ketchup packaging, green funerals, biodegradable grills"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The pace of invention and change is just too strong, we\u2019ve realized, to highlight annual or even quarterly or monthly rankings and summaries of significant product and service advances. For now, we\u2019re going to be tracking these on a weekly basis to keep pace with the changes. Here are the top innovations for the week of August 2nd.<\/p>\n

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#1 Adidas to use only recycled plastic by 2024<\/h4>\n

In Germany, Adidas is committing to using only recycled plastic by 2024 in all its sportswear, eliminating any use of \u201cvirgin\u201d plastic including polyester. Adidas also announced it would not use any more virgin plastic in its offices, retail outlets, warehouses and distribution centers, a move that would save an estimated 40 tons of plastic per year, starting in 2018, according to CNN Money. Adidas said its apparel line for the spring and summer of 2019 will contain around 41% recycled polyester. The German company is also expecting a sharp increase in sales of its Parley shoes, which are made with plastic waste that has been intercepted before it reaches the ocean.<\/p>\n

While still a small share of its global sales, Adidas expects purchases to jump to 5 million pairs this year compared to 1 million in 2017.
\nMore on the story.<\/a><\/p>\n

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#2 Bolt Threads Launches Biobased Knife with Best Made and Chris Reeve Knives<\/h4>\n

In California, Bolt Threads launched their latest product using their the ground breaking Microsilk fiber, a sustainable bio-engineered spider silk. They partnered with Best Made to develop the Nyala knife, whose handle is made from a high-pressured composite of Microsilk fibers encased in resin-matrix. The knife is made in the USA and uses Bolt Thread\u2019s high-pressured composite, reinforced with a vibrant Microsilk substructure. Bolt Threads worked closely with legendary American knife makers Chris Reeve Knives, and enlisting their iconic Nyala fixed blade pattern.<\/p>\n

Chris Reeve\u2019s expert machinists shaped the full-tang blade from incredibly resilient S35VN steel, while the engineers at Bolt Threads formed the Microsilk composite handles in their Emeryville, California workshop. The knives were stonewashed, assembled, and hand-finished in Boise, Idaho at Chris Reeve Knives.
\nMore on the story.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

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#3 Neste to use waste plastic for fuels<\/h4>\n

In Finland, Neste, a global leading producer of renewable diesel, is now exploring ways to introduce liquefied waste plastic as a future raw material for fossil refining. The aim of the development project is to proceed to industrial scale trial during 2019. The company\u2019s target is to process annually more than one million tons of waste plastic by 2030.<\/p>\n

To accelerate development, Neste is looking for partners across the value chain, for example in waste management and upgrading technologies.<\/p>\n

In addition to exploring ways to utilize plastic waste as raw material, Neste is helping the plastics industry and various plastics-consuming companies to reduce their crude oil dependency and climate emissions by producing durable and recyclable renewable plastics from bio-based raw materials, such as waste fats and oils. As an example, Neste and IKEA will produce polypropylene (PP) plastic from fossil-free, bio-based raw materials at commercial scale during fall 2018. This will mark the first time in the world that bio-based PP is produced at a commercial scale.
\nMore on the story.<\/a><\/p>\n

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#4 JUST plant-based eggs enter European markets<\/h4>\n

In California, JUST, a plant-based egg and clean meat company, announced a distribution deal with Eurovo to bring Just Egg to consumers across Europe. Just Egg, made from the mung bean, cooks and tastes like conventional chicken eggs and is currently launching nationally in the United States. JUST plans to expand the product\u2019s availability across Asia after a successful Hong Kong launch earlier this year.<\/p>\n

Partnering with Eurovo, a leading European producer and distributor of packaged, pasteurized, and dried eggs, Just Egg will be sold alongside Eurovo\u2019s retail brands like le Naturelle, Maia, Novissime, Nonna Anita, and others, and will be available for chefs and foodservice professionals through Eurovo Service. Eurovo Group President Siro Lionello said, \u201cOur alliance with JUST fits into an innovation and sustainability strategy that began more than 20 years ago with Eurovo Group\u2019s investments in alternative farming of cage-free, free-range and organic eggs and egg products.\u201d
\nMore on the story.<\/a><\/p>\n

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#5 National Lab adds lignin composite to 3D printing palette<\/h4>\n

In Tennessee, researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory have developed a plant-based composite material for 3D printing. Using waste lignin from biofuel manufacturing and rubber, carbon fiber, and acrylonitrile butadiene styrene, ORNL has developed a material with 100% improved weld strength between layers compared to ABS alone.<\/p>\n

The lignin facilitates melt flow and thermal crosslinking, while the carbon fiber improves the composites performance. ABS improves structure bonding. The ORNL researchers say they will continue to develop the print materials. \u201cTo achieve this, we are building on our experience with lignin during the last five years,\u201d said ORNL\u2019s Amit Naskar. \u201cWe will continue fine tuning the material\u2019s composition to make it even stronger.\u201d
\nMore on the story.<\/a><\/p>\n

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#6 Biodegradable grill now available in US<\/h4>\n

In Texas, a 100% biobased and biodegradable grill originally developed in Denmark has officially launched in the US market.
\nThe one-time-use grill, dubbed CasusGrill, is made from cardboard, bamboo, and lava stone. It disintegrates on its own or can be burned in a campfire after use. It weighs just 2 lbs, 6 ounces.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn an average year, Americans can create up to 254 million tons of trash, inspiring our team to create sustainable and biodegradable products that mitigate our wasteful footprints,\u201d says Susanne Br\u00f8gger, Founder and Inventor of the CasusGrill.\u00a0 \u201cWe sat down at the drawing board and came up with a biodegradable grill that can be effectively used for 60-minutes and safely thrown into the fire.\u201d The CasusGrill costs $14.99 and is available at a number of major outdoor and sports retailers.
\nMore on the story.<\/a><\/p>\n


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#7 Algae-based ketchup packets debut in UK<\/h4>\n

In the United Kingdom, a consortium is trialing the use of seaweed sachets for fast food condiments. The Fat Pizza, a Southend eatery, and Just Eat, an initiative aimed reducing plastic use in the country\u2019s takeway and deliver markets, are carrying out a trial of the condiment sachets in partnership with sustainable packaging startup, Skipping Rocks Lab. The sachets are made from alginate and are biodegradable. The Fat Pizza will use the sachets to deliver ketchup or garlic sauce in its restaurants for six weeks.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs an independent business owner, I want to make sure I\u2019m doing my part to help fight plastic pollution in the takeaway industry,\u201d says Sunny Chhina, owner of The Fat Pizza. \u201cThe sachets are an environmentally-friendly and credible alternative to the traditional plastic condiment sachets and I look forward to continuing to support Just Eat in their drive against plastic waste.\u201d According to Just Eat, over 11 billion plastic condiment sachets are sold globally every year.
\nMore on the story.<\/a><\/p>\n

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#8 Crabs could be key to cracking renewable food packaging<\/h4>\n

In Georgia, researchers have created a flexible plastic alternative for food packaging using crab shells and cellulose. The team created the film by suspending cellulose from trees and chitin nanofibers in water, then spraying them in alternating layers. Chitin is a biopolymer found in shellfish, insects, and fungi. The resulting bioplastic was flexible, transparent, and compostable. The material also has gas barrier properties compatible with the needs of food packaging.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe main benchmark that we compare it to is PET, or polyethylene terephthalate, one of the most common petroleum-based materials in the transparent packaging you see in vending machines and soft drink bottles,\u201d says J. Carson Meredith, a professor in Georgia Tech\u2019s School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering. \u201cOur material showed up to a 67 percent reduction in oxygen permeability over some forms of PET, which means it could in theory keep foods fresher longer.\u201d
\nThe work is described in a recent issue of ACS Sustainable Chemistry and Engineering.
\nMore on the story.<\/a><\/p>\n

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#9 How green is your oral routine? Consider switching to a bamboo toothbrush<\/h4>\n

In the United Kingdom, environmental groups are touting bamboo toothbrushes with compostable handles and recyclable bristles instead of plastic toothbrushes that can end up in the oceans.<\/p>\n

\u201cBamboo toothbrush handles can take around six months to compost, while a plastic one takes hundreds of years to fully break down,\u201d Emma Priestland, plastic-free campaigner at Friends Of The Earth, tells HuffPost UK.<\/p>\n

Natalie Fee, founder of plastic pollution campaign group City To Sea, recalls seeing a photo of a toothbrush inside the stomach of an albatross chick. \u201c[I] stopped using plastic toothbrushes,\u201d she says. \u201cI\u2019d never really thought about where they end up and I was horrified to think that they could end up in our oceans.\u201d Bristle, a bamboo toothbrush subscription service, says their toothbrushes also have a lower carbon footprint. \u201cSwapping from a plastic to a bamboo toothbrush is such an easy thing for a person to do to immediately reduce the plastic waste created in their household,\u201d says Daniel Jones, company co-founder.
\nMore on the story.<\/a><\/p>\n

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#10 Green Reaper is revolutionizing the funeral<\/h4>\n

In Oregon, Elizabeth Fournier has gained notoriety as the \u201cGreen Reaper\u201d for advancing the concept of eco-conscious funerals and burials. Fournier\u2019s company, Cornerstone Funeral Services, is the first green funeral home in Portland and she recently wrote The Green Burial Guidebook: Everything You Need to Plan an Affordable, Environmentally Friendly Burial to catalogue all the natural burial choices available in North America.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy intended audience was people who\u2019ve never heard of natural burial and want to know what the heck is going on, as well as people who keep hearing about it, and think it\u2019s a trend,\u201d she tells the Sierra Club. While the green burial concept began with simple, biodegradable coffins and urns, it has since expanded into more outside-the-box solutions, including a mushroom burial suit whose spores help to detoxify and decompose the body, she adds.
\nMore on the story.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The pace of invention and change is just too strong, we\u2019ve realized, to highlight annual or even quarterly or monthly rankings and summaries of significant product and service advances. For now, we\u2019re going to be tracking these on a weekly basis to keep pace with the changes. Here are the top innovations for the week […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-94676","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-featured-4"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biofuelsdigest.com\/bdigest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94676","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biofuelsdigest.com\/bdigest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biofuelsdigest.com\/bdigest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biofuelsdigest.com\/bdigest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biofuelsdigest.com\/bdigest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=94676"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.biofuelsdigest.com\/bdigest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94676\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biofuelsdigest.com\/bdigest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=94676"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biofuelsdigest.com\/bdigest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=94676"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biofuelsdigest.com\/bdigest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=94676"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}