{"id":146316,"date":"2024-06-21T07:23:00","date_gmt":"2024-06-21T05:23:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/?p=146316"},"modified":"2024-06-14T11:56:58","modified_gmt":"2024-06-14T09:56:58","slug":"startup-aiming-to-reduce-plastic-reliance-joins-cornell-incubator","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/startup-aiming-to-reduce-plastic-reliance-joins-cornell-incubator\/","title":{"rendered":"Startup aiming to reduce plastic reliance joins Cornell incubator"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
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\"Chris
Chris Thomas, the CEO of RETRN Bio, (left), Juan Hinestroza, the Rebecca Q. Morgan \u201960 Professor of Fiber Science and Apparel Design in the College of Human Ecology, and Ryan Scheel, the chief science officer of RETRN Bio, discuss how to upcycle agricultural waste streams and process them into biodegradable polymers. \u00a9 Ryan Young\/Cornell University<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

A company that originated in Syracuse and is aiming to use agricultural waste to replace the petroleum-based plastic liners in coffee cups, takeout containers and other consumer products has joined Cornell\u2019s\u00a0Center for Life Science Ventures<\/a>\u00a0incubator.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

RETRN Bio joined the incubator June 1 to conduct research and polish a business plan, with the objective of decreasing the world\u2019s dependency on plastic.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\"Cornell<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n
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\u201cWe want to confront chemical pollution by helping the paper-packaging industry displace outdated plastics with a new class of biodegradable coatings for food containers,\u201d said Chris Thomas, CEO of RETRN Bio<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe want to replace that small amount of plastic now found on paper materials with a waste-based, tunable polymer fiber that will be recyclable, fully biodegradable and completely natural,\u201d Thomas<\/strong> said. \u201cIt can be broken down quickly in the environment without adding to our pollution problem.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

The incubator will provide laboratory space for the company, business-plan development expertise and a wide array of campus research resources \u2013 including academic knowledge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cRETRN Bio is finding a way to make their green plastic in a flexible manner to meet a variety of industrial and commercial needs,\u201d said Lou Walcer, director of the Center for Life Science Ventures.<\/strong> \u201cThe specs for every product will be different, but whether you\u2019re manufacturing a coffee cup or a takeout dinner tray, the bioplastic lining must be flexible enough to accommodate the process.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

RETRN Bio uses low-cost agricultural waste \u2013 such as plant-based, fibrous wheat bran left over from breweries, or papermill excess \u2013 to bioengineer and create natural, proprietary PHA (polyhydroxyalkanoate) polymers that can be adjusted for different uses and manufacturing processes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cAnything that originally came from a plant can be used because it is fiber-rich,\u201d Thomas<\/strong> said. \u201cThe integrity and structural fibers of plants is what we use as our base material.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Currently, food-container makers generally use polyethylene (PE) or perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl (PFAS), and other plastics, to line packaging.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But about three years ago, Thomas and Ryan Scheel, now the chief science officer for RETRN Bio, imagined a better source: biological components. They sought to turn agricultural waste \u2013 such as gigantic piles of fibrous bran leftovers from the brewing process \u2013 into bioplastic by using bacteria.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As students at SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry, Thomas and Scheel took their concept to the Blackstone LaunchPad program at Syracuse University.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last fall, through the Cornell Center for Materials Research, RETRN Bio partnered with Juan Hinestroza<\/a>, the Rebecca Q. Morgan \u201960 Professor of Fiber Science and Apparel Design in the College of Human Ecology, and his students to refine how to upcycle agricultural waste streams and process them into biodegradable polymers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hinestroza is a faculty fellow at Cornell Atkinson Center for Sustainability. Funding came from the JumpStart program, which supports small business in New York, while working with Empire State Development\u2019s Division of Science, Technology and Innovation (NYSTAR).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cRETRN Bio not only has a solid scientific background,\u201d Hinestroza<\/strong> said, \u201cbut an unshakable commitment to provide real solutions to solve the massive problem of plastic pollution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWorking with them has been a great experience,\u201d he<\/strong> said. \u201cMy students in the Department of Human Centered Design benefit by seeing how fiber science knowledge and skills can provide unique solutions to global challenges.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Walcer said the goal for RETRN Bio is to earn outside investment and achieve self-sufficiency, while developing jobs in the life sciences and bringing economic development to New York.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cIt\u2019s all about scale,\u201d Walcer<\/strong> said. \u201cRETRN Bio will be here at the Center for Life Science Ventures to take their laboratory bench-scale processes, use our lab facilities, scale it up, make it into an industrial-strength process and greenify everybody\u2019s coffee cup and many other consumer products.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A company that originated in Syracuse and is aiming to use agricultural waste to replace the petroleum-based plastic liners in coffee cups, takeout containers and other consumer products has joined Cornell\u2019s\u00a0Center for Life Science Ventures\u00a0incubator. RETRN Bio joined the incubator June 1 to conduct research and polish a business plan, with the objective of decreasing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":146345,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","nova_meta_subtitle":"Generally food containers are made from polyethylene (PE) or perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl (PFAS), and other plastics, to line packaging - but about three years ago, Thomas and Ryan Scheel, the founders of RETRN Bio, imagined a better source: biological components","footnotes":""},"categories":[5572],"tags":[23834,11270,5847,10416,16106,7105,13222,5528,14691],"supplier":[24349,1166,5239,24348,18955],"class_list":["post-146316","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bio-based","tag-agriculturalwaste","tag-biodegradability","tag-bioplastics","tag-circulareconomy","tag-container","tag-packaging","tag-paper","tag-sustainability","tag-wastebased","supplier-college-of-human-ecology-cornell","supplier-cornell-university-usa","supplier-empire-state-development","supplier-retrn-bio","supplier-syracuse-university"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146316","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=146316"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146316\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/146345"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=146316"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=146316"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=146316"},{"taxonomy":"supplier","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/supplier?post=146316"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}