Plastic Bottles Become Protein-Rich Cookies in New μBites Research
The research reframes plastic waste not as a disposal problem but as a carbon source for food production, targeting projected global food demand increases by 2050.
Reporting from 1 source: GIGAZINE.
A Southern Illinois University Carbondale research team has created μBites, a protein-rich cookie made from plastic waste. The cookie starts as PET plastic bottles, which are broken down by a process called oxidative hydrothermal dissolution, then fed to engineered yeast that rebuilds the material into food ingredients. The team developed it for NASA's Deep Space Food Challenge and presented the work at the American Chemical Society Fall 2026 meeting.
The cookie begins as a PET plastic bottle, the material used for most beverage containers. A geology professor at the university, Ken Anderson, devised the breakdown method called oxidative hydrothermal dissolution, which uses water and oxygen under high temperature and pressure to reduce the plastic into fragments that microorganisms can consume.
Associate Professor Rahul Jayakody and graduate student Sandhya Jayasekara then fed those fragments to various yeasts, including genetically modified baker's yeast, which rebuilt them into proteins. Dietary fiber, starch, and sweeteners were added, and the final mixture was shaped with a 3D printer.
Taste testing is still pending approval, though aroma tests earned high ratings and most participants said they would eat the cookies in a resource-limited environment. The team aims to eventually produce all main ingredients using microorganisms.
Synthesized by Yomimono from the 1 cited source below, including Japanese-language reporting where cited, then editorially reviewed before publishing.
Sources
- GIGAZINE プラスチックごみから生み出されたクッキー「μBites」