Up-cycling industrial waste to produce home-compostable biocomposites for sustainable cosmetic pots

由Olivia Simpson(B.Sc.)领导的创新型生物材料公司SymBioTex致力于开发尖端的生物基解决方案，以取代一次性塑料、不可回收的塑料-生物材料混合物和工业可堆肥材料。SymBioTex基于海藻的解决方案(超过75%的海藻)旨在取代化妆品行业的一次性包装，全球每年超过1200亿个包装；其中大部分实际上无法回收。随着化妆品市场预计到2030年产生5605亿美元，包装问题肯定会变得更糟。SymBioTex的目标是开发真正可持续的解决方案，并将其商业化，以解决我们社会面临的问题。该项目旨在探索和进一步评估基于海藻的新型生物复合材料，为污染严重的化妆品行业提供碳中性/负可持续的替代方案。缺乏单一塑料可回收解决方案表明，完全家庭堆肥替代品是必要的，以满足目前在减轻塑料包装方面的努力。通过创造一种以海藻为基础的热塑性材料，这种材料可以扩大规模，迅速满足化妆品行业和其他行业的需求。SymBioTex已与苏格兰海藻化妆品公司Ishga合作，评估这种化妆品包装专利材料的技术和美学性能。该项目旨在推动现有生物基解决方案的技术边界，并满足消费者对化妆品包装试点的要求，化妆品行业的回收率为9%，因此迫切需要可持续的解决方案。\*取决于食用油和海藻供应商，目前的解决方案可能还不是净负面的，但如果实现本地废油收集和海藻生产；净负目标是可以实现的。

SymbioTex, an innovative biomaterials company led by Olivia Simpson (B.Sc.), aims to develop cutting edge biobased solutions to replace single use plastics, non-recyclable plastic-co-biomaterial blends and industrially compostable materials. SymbioTex's seaweed-based solution (more than 75% seaweed) aims to displace single use packaging in the cosmetics sector, which accounts for more than 120 billion units every year globally; most of which are not actually recyclable.With the cosmetic market projected to generate US$ 560.5 billion by 2030, the packaging issues are bound to get worse. SymbioTex aims to develop and commercialise truly sustainable solutions to the issues faced by our society. This project aims to explore and further assess novel seaweed based biocomposites to provide carbon neutral/negative\* sustainable alternatives towards the heavily polluting cosmetics industry. The lack of monoplastic recyclable solutions suggests that fully home compostable alternatives are needed to satisfy current efforts in mitigating plastic packaging. By creating a seaweed-based thermoplastic-like material which can be scaled up to rapidly meet the demands of the cosmetic industry and beyond.SymbioTex has teamed up with Ishga, a Scottish based seaweed cosmetic company to evaluate both the technical and aesthetic properties of the patented material for cosmetic packaging.This project aims to push the technical boundaries of current biobased solutions and fulfil consumer requirements to pilot cosmetic packaging, the cosmetic industry has a 9% recycling rate, and thus is in desperate need of sustainable solutions.\*Depending on cooking oil and seaweed suppliers, the current solution might not be net negative yet, however if local collection of waste oils and production of seaweed is achieved; net-negative goals can be met.