In New Orleans, Louisiana State University Associate Professor Naohiro Kato has created an updated version of his biobased Mardis Gras beads that contain okra seeds. Many of the 1,500, 3-D printed necklaces Kato’s team produced will be thrown during the 2026 Freret and Tucks parades in New Orleans and the Artemis parade in Baton Rouge. […]
In India, e-commerce giant Amazon has partnered with the Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee in a 15-month pilot project to convert agricultural waste into biodegradable paper mailers. The project will use crop waste like wheat straw and sugarcane residue. Amazon hopes to advance from pilot to validation by the end of next year. “At Amazon, […]
In Tokyo, Sony Corporation is leading a large consortium of materials manufacturers to create a supply chain for biobased plastics that can be used in Sony’s audio-visual products. Electronics rely on a mix of different plastics, which creates a tangled supply chain that’s hard to track from raw material to finished product. On top of […]
In India, prominent industrialists Yohan and Michelle Poonawalla of the Poonawalla Group have made an unspecified investment in biodegradable bag maker Regeno Ventures Pvt Ltd. Based in Coimbatore, Regeno produces 100% biodegradable carry, garbage, and garment bags using materials comprised mostly of tapioca, along with other vegetable starches and natural extracts. “Regeno represents a strategic […]
In Colorado, mycelium-based leather alternative maker MycoWorks has been acquired by private equity firm DFX Corp. DFX aims to restructure the company to expand commercial sales of MycoWorks’ Fine Mycelium technology, which it says is valued at about $300 million. “In partnership with our new private equity partner, DFX Corporation, MycoWorks is undergoing a necessary […]
In Michigan, biopolymer firm Ecovia Bio has closed a Series B funding round led by Pointe Angels, an independent angel investor group based in the Grosse Pointe communities east of Detroit, Michigan. The unspecified funding will support significant expansion of manufacturing capacity at Ecovia Bio’s Livonia facility to meet growing global demand for its AzuraBase […]
In India, Synthomer has announced a new partnership with Godavari Biorefineries Limited to develop biobased alternatives to existing fossil‑based monomers. Through this partnership, Synthomer is commercializing biobased butyl acrylate using biobased butanol produced by GBL as feedstock. “Partnering with GBL enables us to offer customers a lower-carbon alternative to fossil-based monomers, helping them to meet […]
In India, altM, a materials company developing sustainable alternatives to fossil-derived chemicals, has opened a fully integrated biorefinery pilot plant in Bengaluru. The pilot plant operates at 15–50 tons per year, enabling altM to scale production from kilograms to tons while testing throughput, yield, quality, and unit economics under real industrial conditions. Initial materials produced […]
In the United Kingdom, London internet provider G.Network has entered administration because it used fiber optic cable jackets made of soy- and corn-based materials that have been chewed by rats. First reported The Telegraph, G.Network is £300 million (US$411 million) in debt and only had 25,000 paying subscribers. Community Fibre was considering acquiring the company’s […]
In South Korea, Samsung Electronics has unveiled an e-paper with a display made of phytoplankton-based plastics. E‑paper is a display technology that replicates the appearance of printed ink on paper, delivering excellent readability, minimal energy use, and greater flexibility than conventional screens. It is widely employed in e‑readers, digital signage, and other devices where extended […]
