IN previous stories this column has dealt with different ways that companies are thinking outside the square, many trying to find new ways of using waste products to make an item more environmentally friendly or using a product in a different way.
In a massive warehouse in Melbourne West, a gleaming machine hums and purrs around the clock extruding large rolls of clear plastic wrap.
But this is different. Instead of being based on petroleum, as is a lot of wrap these days, this is made from pelletised potato peelings from such waste food products as French fries and potato chips.
Usually, this goes to cattle feed or is spread out on the farmland.
Wrapping is used a lot in industry to keep items together or conversely, apart.
It is used to cover food, trays, meat and a myriad of other things we buy at our local store.
Using the potato wrap could have a huge impact on plastic wrap and maybe in time eliminating it altogether.
It is safe to use in any situation and is recyclable.
Maybe in the future we can throw our non-plastic wrapping in the garden into the compost rather than in the bin to be picked up and taken to landfill.
As you already know, like adjusting to climate change, this will take many years to accomplish in any meaningful way.
However, we have started with our disposable cutlery, our throwaway plates, our coffee cups and many other items slowly creeping into our lives.
Sugar cane pulp is used in so many ways now, from garden mulch to biofuel to renewable sugar cane pulp from the sugar industry, to make coffee cups and oyster trays, of course, as well as sugar.
In Singapore there is a study going on to take the keratin out of the tonnes of chicken feathers wasted each year and turn them, after processing, into clean electricity.
It is said that the average family throws out around 500kg of food every year, so how much money would we save if we thought more of what we do with our food?
Our world is changing, meat that’s not meat, milk that’s not from a cow, chicken that’s not chicken, fuel that’s not petrol. Are we prepared?
Maybe we need to think more about our gardens in the future, how we can grow more vegetables and fruit and best of all, knowing what goes into growing this produce. Till next week.
