Potatoes Into Plastics and Power - Kevin Shiell
New Brunswick farmers plough over more than 100 million potatoes every year that are deemed not suitable for the market. That’s a lot of potatoes. But New Brunswick Community College instructor Kevin Shiell has found a market for those potatoes by perfecting a fermentation process that turns them into biodegradable plastic. Plastics that, when exposed to microbes, completely decompose in less than six months. Like the ones in your everyday compost bin.
Starting with a $25,000 investment from the Foundation in 2003, additional investments have allowed Mr. Shiell to find ways to introduce other organic materials to his process, including wheat and barley. Today, that research has led Mr. Shiell to develop other fermentation processes that produce biogas from the same kind of waste. Biogas that can be used to generate electricity.
With the right installations of plant infrastructure, the ways in which Mr. Shiell’s work adds value to what was once waste promises great things for business in northern New Brunswick.
Wouldn’t it be great if we could just harmlessly dissolve plastic containers when we’re done with them, and in a way that benefits the earth? New Brunswick Community College Instructor Kevin Shiell knows how. He makes plastic bottles from potato waste that will disintegrate in your compost in less than six months.
Watch Video