Turning potato peels into yoga pants? Yes, Ontario researchers want to do that | 24CA News
Researchers in Ontario say they’re engaged on plans to show meals waste, reminiscent of potato peels and corn stalks, into plastic and nylon that can be utilized to create on a regular basis gadgets reminiscent of yoga pants.
The Ontario Genomics’ new wasteCANcreate program appears to be like to make use of genomics to assist divert tons of waste into helpful family garments and gadgets.
The program includes a consortium of companies unfold from Orillia to Burlington to Aylmer in Ontario to others in Vancouver and Regina who’re working alongside the University of Toronto, University of Waterloo and Carleton University .
“What we can do with genomics to to tackle our waste problem is, is another great news story,” Ontario Genomics president Dr. Bettina Hamelin instructed Global News.
Genomics are presently getting used throughout quite a lot of disciplines together with throughout the medical world.
“Genomics is all about the DNA. The DNA is the blueprint of any sort of life, whether that is human life or plant life or animal life,” Hamelin stated.
“We have the ability to analyze the DNA and we derive a lot of information from that that we can use, for example, to diagnose disease or to choose the right drug for the right person to make sure that treatments are effective.”
In the case of wasteCANcreate, the challenge will contain a course of referred to as precision fermentation which permits tiny creatures to snack on starchy meals after which poop out tiny particles of plastic waste which might then be used to make bigger plastic and nylon merchandise reminiscent of water bottles or athletic put on.
“We do that by amplifying a natural process where microbes that are naturally occurring, feed on food waste like potato skins and potatoes and starch, and the microbes have the ability to feed on that food waste and then turn it into components of products like bioplastics or nylons, plastic films, etc.,” Hamelin defined.
“It’s a process that’s called ‘precision fermentation’ and we do this in a controlled environment which allows us to scale up the process and harvest the products we set out to produce.”
If it efficiently scales up, she says the meals transformation challenge may have a fantastic influence on the atmosphere.
“On average, every Canadian produces 140 kg of food waste every year, costs us $1300 dollars, and the waste ends up in landfills,” she stated. “And what that does, it produces greenhouse gases, and that’s just not good for the environment.
“The opportunity here is really to reduce the waste and reduce greenhouse gases and make the environment better.”
Hamelin says we’re at first levels of improvement to place the wasteCANcreate program into place.
“We have all of these pathways figured out,” she defined. “We’ve gotten engagement from the industry partners and from our university partners and are hard at work to come up with these solutions,” she stated.
“But, you know, we realized this was a starting point and it will hopefully bloom from here and we can bring more partners on board and raise more money to do more of that because we desperately need it.”
The head of Ontario Genomics additionally identified that the trade is predicted to thrive within the coming years and there will probably be 1000’s of job openings within the space.
“Biotechnology is blooming. It’s you know, we actually talk about a bio revolution that is happening out there and that will require a workforce,” she stated. “We have put out a report last year that estimates that over the next 5 to 7 years we need at least 85,000 people working in this area.”
Biochemistry, information sciences and engineering have been areas of examine at universities that she advised individuals get into.
“Universities are great grounds to create these interdisciplinary connections and networks,” she defined.
“However, colleges are a really great place as well to get exposed to to biotechnology and we are working closely with a number of colleges in the province to develop programs and micro credentials so that folks can actually get that kind of exposure in the college world as well.”
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