Over the past several decades, the oil and gas companies that manufacture plastics have promoted recycling to prevent plastic bans, as they push responsibility on to consumers. In doing this, their products seemingly appear less harmful, easily recyclable, and cost-effective to produce. The reality of recycling is ugly, but that’s a topic for another post.

If we are destined to shift toward bioplastics, we need to ensure this relatively new industry is more transparent than its petroleum-based predecessors. Feedstock source is a major question mark. An ethical dilemma surrounds using crops to make bioplastics rather than food for consumption.

Luckily there is a solution.

Full Cycle Bioplastics is the only company in North America producing bioplastic from food waste. Food waste is a global problem. When it is thrown into landfills, it emits methane and carbon dioxide: harmful greenhouse gases. Full Cycle Bioplastics converts food waste into PHA, a bioplastic known to be biodegradable and compostable.

Picture this: a big tech company generates hundreds of tons of food waste on campus. Full Cycle collects that waste and converts it into biodegradable packaging for food distribution on campus. Employees at the big tech company then compost the PHA-based wrapper along with their food scraps, and the process begins again, it’s a completely circular loop.

Bioplastics will have a seat at the table, and Full Cycle is looking forward to providing a better solution.