“Ben … one word: plastics.” Remember that line from the movie “The Graduate”?
If you think Dustin Hoffman was flummoxed, wait till you read on.
Sustainability is our cover story this month, and much of the discussion and much of the blame in that story is focused on “one word: plastics.” Apparently, a Dept. of Defense (DoD) research project is working on a novel solution: turning plastic waste into food, among other troop necessities.
Did I just hear you gulp?
An article originally in nonprofit digital magazine Undark and revisited in MIT Technology Review has discovered the project, which uses bacteria to devour plastic waste, with the fattened-up microbes eventually becoming a food source.
Gulp again.
In 2019, DoD’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) released a call for research projects to help the military deal with two problems. One was supplying troops with necessities in locales that didn’t have established and secure supply chains. “The overriding goal of the program is to create systems that can rapidly produce materials onsite, when and where they are needed,” the DARPA announcement said.
“Portable, self-contained systems could quickly convert energy-dense waste into food, water and chemicals to support expeditionary operations and stabilization missions,” the DARPA announcement theorized.
The other problem was the amount of waste the soldiers leave behind, plastic being a big part of that debris.
“The agency wanted a system that could convert food wrappers and water bottles, among other things, into usable products, such as fuel and rations,” the Undark article relates. “The system needed to be small enough to fit in a Humvee and capable of running on little energy. It also needed to harness the power of plastic-eating microbes.”
DARPA has set several standards for ReSource (the name of the project) technology that, if achieved, could fundamentally improve how DoD approaches waste management -- shifting away from burning, burying or shipping burdensome waste to onsite material conversion of waste from a less valuable form to a strategic resource.
“In the case of food,” DARPA said in the request for proposals, “the ReSource output would be a basic product composed of macronutrients ready for immediate consumption.”
Now, plastic-eating bacteria are not new, they’ve been talked about and experimented with for years. But making the little critters into food is novel … and a long way from reality. However, there are other research projects around the globe exploring whether microorganisms might one day help feed the world’s growing population, the Undark article says.
You know the problems with plastic waste – from unsightly litter to ocean and ground pollution to microplastics that could be infiltrating everything we eat.
Michigan Technological University was one of three research groups answering DARPA’s call and receiving funding. Undark talked to Stephen Techtmann, a microbiologist at Michigan Tech:
“The goal … is not to feed people plastic. Rather, the hope is that the plastic-devouring microbes in his system will themselves prove fit for human consumption. While Techtmann believes most of the project will be ready in a year or two, it’s this food step that could take longer.
“His team is currently doing toxicity testing, and then they will submit their results to the Food and Drug Administration for review. Even if all that goes smoothly, an additional challenge awaits.”
Namely, the ick factor.