With 1.3 billion tons of food trashed, dumped in landfills and otherwise wasted around the world every year, scientists have now described development and successful laboratory testing of a new “biorefinery” intended to change food waste into a key ingredient for making plastics, laundry detergents and scores of other everyday products.

Their report on a project launched in cooperation with the Starbucks restaurant chain- concerned with sustainability and seeking a use for spent coffee grounds and stale bakery goods- came on August 20 at the 244th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society in Philadelphia.

‘Our new process addresses the food waste problem by turning Starbucks’ trash into treasure- detergent ingredients and bio-plastics that can be incorporated into other useful products,’ said Carol S. K. Lin, Ph.D., who led the research team.  ‘The strategy reduces the environmental burden of food waste, produces a potential income from this waste and is a sustainable solution.’

Read more… (ScienceDaily)