Source: Origin Materials

A tech startup in Ontario, Canada, will soon be paying local sawmills for sawdust to use in the making of plant-based plastic bottles, according to reports.

Startup Origin Materials is offering to pay $20 a ton for sawdust leftover at sawmills from transforming logs into lumber. To do this, Origin Materials extracts cellulose from the wood waste to create para-xylene, which is a hydrocarbon typically obtained from oil and used to produce polyethylene terephthalate, or PET, which is a strong, clear and lightweight plastic that is among the most commonly used plastics. Opting to use wood waste instead of oil to manufacture the plastic resin absorbs CO₂ from the atmosphere, according to Origin Materials, whereas drilling for the crude oil to manufacture plastic resin releases greenhouse gas emissions.

Nestle SA, Danone SA and PepsiCo Inc. are all planning to use Origin Materials’ recyclable plastic bottles derived from sawdust to sell their bottled water brands in early 2022.

“Consumers are caring about plastic in a way that they haven’t in a long time, maybe ever,” said John Bissell, the founder of Origin Materials who has spent a decade working as an engineer developing alternative plastics that do not contribute to climate change. “Everyday things like bottles and clothing can now become carbon negative, but remain otherwise functionally identical.”

Origin Materials is not alone its efforts to create plastic alternatives to help prevent plastic waste overcrowding landfills and overwhelming the world’s oceans, resulting in a world-wide plastic waste crisis. Startups and researchers the world over are turning to unexpected materials to use in the development of plastic alternatives including avocado seeds, lobster shells, fish scales and red algae and cactus leaves.