Turning food waste into everyday essentials

Brut America

A T-shirt made from milk waste ... beer waste turned into laundry pods ...  Meet the startup Mi Terro finding new uses for some of the most common food waste

Transcript

00:00This t-shirt is made from milk waste that we sourced from my uncle's dairy farm.

00:04And this pot with detergent inside is made from beer waste.

00:08So we're solving two global problems with a single solution.

00:21My goal today is to take agriculture waste and turn it into bio-materials

00:26that can make our world greener.

00:30Beer is the third most consumed beverage in the entire world.

00:41That means there is so much spent grain that we can source from this beer waste,

00:47which we use to create the flexible film of our materials.

00:51It can be made into ceramic wrap, food wrap, product label for bottles,

00:56and even edible sachets that can protect dry nuts and dry powders.

01:01You can treat our material just like other types of organic waste,

01:05such as banana peel, orange peel.

01:07It can naturally biodegrade under the right condition.

01:22And it was a big problem for him.

01:23So my uncle asked me, Robert, can you help me find a better solution

01:28in creating a higher value from the milk waste?

01:31And that was when the idea hit.

01:32Eventually, we developed a patent-pending process that can upcycle

01:37and convert the milk waste into protein polymer, which can be used as textile fiber.

01:54We didn't expect much of an outcome because we thought this was something very,

01:57very new for people to get comfortable with.

02:00But out of our surprise, in 48 hours, we were fully funded.

02:05And that was amazing.

02:07It was a first taste of success.

02:11So these pods are made from fossil dry materials,

02:24which can then be made into microplastic that flows in our ocean.

02:29Research has shown that there are trillions of tons of microplastic in our ocean,

02:34which can eventually come back to us when we drink water.

02:38And microplastic has been found in plasma and placenta.

02:43Very scary.

02:44This material is made from Mitero, which is sourced from agricultural waste.

02:49It's plant-based and it does not harm the environment.

03:05Our partnership with Mitero,

03:07it's a great partnership.

03:09They're taking agricultural waste and converting it into a protein

03:13that can be used as a plastic replacement.

03:15So yeah, this is exciting.

03:18By paying farmers and paying food manufacturers, it's a win-win situation for everyone.

03:25They get additional revenue and we get their raw material through

03:29making the higher value products.

03:31Food waste, plastic waste happens every single day on the global scale.

03:37However, what's even more urgent is the global public health.

03:41That plastic and carbon emission will impact our children,

03:46grandchildren, and many, many more generations that come after us.

03:51We must act now and must act fast to save their future.

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