Maybe its time has come. Worth keeping an eye on
From AgFunder News, September 30:
Editor’s note: Duane Cantrell is managing partner and CEO at Fulcrum Global Capital, an agtech-focused VC firm based in Shawnee, Kansas, US. The views expressed in this article are the author’s own, and do not necessarily represent those of AFN.....MORE
Plant-based protein companies in the US received $747 million in venture capital investment in 2019, according to the Good Food Institute; in the first quarter of 2020 alone, they received an eye-popping $741 million. The alt-protein market is exploding with interest as technology collides with larger trends like the eco-conscious consumer and Covid-related supply chain challenges in meat, poultry, and dairy.
And yet, there’s a market that is likewise catching a wave and is just as attractive in terms of the size of the prize, the scale of the problem, and its outsized potential for positive environmental impact: bioplastics.
We’ve heard for decades about the environmental problems associated with petroleum-based plastic products, particularly single-use packaging like we find in the food industry. To minimize these problems, the burden of responsibility was put on consumers with the mantra ‘reduce, reuse, recycle.’
But the prevalence of single-use plastics has grown 5x since 1980, while we recycle a mere 5% of them. Those numbers tell us that the environmental impact of plastic is an unsolved problem.
At Fulcrum Global Capital, one of our bets in bioplastics is Green Dot Bioplastics, a company that has developed the first cost-effective marine biodegradable plastic. Mark Remmert, CEO at Green Dot Bioplastics, says there are four reasons “reduce, reuse, recycle” failed:
These reasons explain findings by researchers at the circular economy-focused Ellen MacArthur Foundation:
- Plastics are not endlessly recyclable. Most of the materials break down after being heated two or three times.
- Plastics are not simply ‘plastics’. There are thousands of types of plastic that must be sorted correctly in order to be recycled effectively.
- Contaminated plastics are extremely difficult to recycle. Any plastic used in foodservice, food packaging, fast food, for institutional or commercial use, or for restaurant service is contaminated with food and human contact. Outdoor applications like mulch film or lawn and garden packaging are contaminated with soil. These are examples of plastics that are nearly impossible to recycle and, in some cases, prohibited from the recycle streams.
- Recycling of traditional petrochemical plastics does not address greenhouse gas emissions and associated global warming.
- New plastics will consume 20% of all oil production within 35 years, up from an estimated 5% today.
- Plastics production has increased 20x since 1964, reaching 311 million tonnes in 2014. It is expected to double again in the next 20 years and almost quadruple by 2050.
- Despite the growing demand, just 5% of plastics are recycled effectively, while 40% end up in landfill and a third in fragile ecosystems such as the world’s oceans....
"Plastics"
