As plastic straws fall out of favor for their potential to inflict environmental damage, a company with an alternative that uses avocado pits is getting more attention.<\/p>\n
Morelia, Michoac\u00e1n-based Biofase is manufacturing biodegradable straws made out avocado seeds using a process whose beginnings date back to 2012.<\/p>\n
Scott Mung\u00eda was a chemical engineering student at the time and, being motivated to solve pollution problems, was looking for a reliable source for biodegradable plastic.<\/p>\n
After a trial-and-error process that tested the properties of raw materials such as mango and mamey sapote seeds, Mungu\u00eda hit upon avocados.<\/p>\n
It took him a year and a half of research to find an effective method to extract a molecular compound from the avocado pit and obtain a biopolymer, which could then be molded into any desirable shape. Mungu\u00eda\u2019s avocado-based bioplastic was born.<\/p>\n
The bioplastic products manufactured using his process biodegrade after 240 days of being exposed to the elements or buried in the ground, while their fossil fuel-based counterparts can take more than 100 years.<\/p>\n
By 2013, Mungu\u00eda had the process patented and founded Biofase. Two years later he installed his first plant in Morelia to manufacture ecofriendly plastics and sell them as raw material.<\/p>\n
In 2016, Mung\u00eda decided to start manufacturing his own bioplastic-based products in a second plant. He began with plastic cutlery, and in February this year moved into straws.<\/p>\n
Four months on, the young entrepreneur has found that changing people\u2019s habits is no easy feat: \u201cpeople are still reluctant to pay more for [a product] that protects the environment.\u201d<\/p>\n
But production continues in the Morelia plant, whose monthly yield of biodegradable plastic products is 130 tonnes, 40% of which are straws. Eighty per cent of the plant\u2019s production is exported to the United States, Canada, Costa Rica, Colombia and Per\u00fa.<\/p>\n
Its daily consumption amounts to 15 tonnes of avocado seeds, which it gets from the United States-based food company Simplot. It also operates a plant in Mochoac\u00e1n.<\/p>\n
Mexico is the second biggest market for Mungu\u00eda\u2019s company, but its principal customers are chain restaurants such as Fiesta Americana, P. F. Chang\u2019s China Bistro and Chili\u2019s Grill & Bar rather than consumers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
As plastic straws fall out of favor for their potential to inflict environmental damage, a company with an alternative that uses avocado pits is getting more attention. Morelia, Michoac\u00e1n-based Biofase is manufacturing biodegradable straws made out avocado seeds using a process whose beginnings date back to 2012. Scott Mung\u00eda was a chemical engineering student at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","nova_meta_subtitle":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5572],"tags":[11270,5847],"supplier":[4725],"class_list":["post-53926","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bio-based","tag-biodegradability","tag-bioplastics","supplier-biofase"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53926","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=53926"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53926\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53926"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53926"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53926"},{"taxonomy":"supplier","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/supplier?post=53926"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}