Waste as input, but not as output: it’s Unplastic, made out of beer waste
Compostable and non-plastic, Unplastic is a new materials that simply become part of the circle of life. Circular economy has never been easier to understand!
An astonishing 90% of all plastic is not recycled. The rest ends up in landfills, burned, or broken down into millions of tiny, persistent particles.
Bioengineer Lori Goff created UnPlastic as a scalable solution to this monstrous problem. This circular material can be developed from food industry streams, by-products, and beer brewery waste.
What is UnPlastic
UnPlastic is the non-plastic alternative to single-use plastics
It’s a functional and totally plastic-free foil that is flexible, lightweight, odorless and transparent, making it an ideal alternative for packaging everything from candy to chocolates to protective retail packaging. It is also designed to compost in soil and water, leaving no harmful traces in the environment.
UnPlastic is a project by Outlander Materials, a biotech company tackling waste by making revolutionary new materials. At Outlander, they explore the uses of beer waste to create novel materials, combined with other food industry streams and by-products.
UnPlastic features:
- Biodegradable & Non-Plastic. UnPlastic biodegrades in soil and water, and never breaks down into micro- or nanoplastics. It leaves no harmful traces in the natural environment
- Lightweight & Flexible. The material is flexible and lightweight, making it ideal for packaging products.
- Extends Shelf Life. UnPlastic has exceptional barriers against fats, oils and oxygen, extending the shelf life of products.
- Non-Toxic, Non-Allergenic & Vegan. UnPlastic is free of toxins, allergens, and animal products.
- Circular. UnPlastic can be created from already existing food production streams and waste, minimizing the depletion of natural resources.
- Semi-Transparent. UnPlastic foil is semi-transparent, so consumers can see what is inside.
- Odorless. Unlike many other packaging alternatives, UnPlastic is free of odors, leaving no unintended smells or flavors.
- Can Be Made From Beer. By making UnPlastic using brewery waste, one of our favorite beverages becomes a world savior.
Beer can change the world!
The idea was born from Lori Goff, a bioengineer, a few years ago when she eceived a beer brewing kit as a birthday gift. “I was brewing beer in my kitchen and started to take a more serious look at the amount of waste produced during the beer brewing process. I thought: there’s definitely cool stuff I can make out of this.”
And so she did. She settled in a lab and started experimenting and soon got in touch with VET & LAZY. “To create one litre of beer you need seven litres of fresh water.” she states. The remaining six litres, referred to as brewery effluent, is normally being wasted. But not on Lori’s watch. “I use the waste stream that is produced during the beer brewing process. With biotechnology, as a result, we produce a material that can be developed into a non-plastic that can function as a new alternative to plastics.”
The first thing Lori created with this new material were candy wrappers, but it can be used to replace multiple types of single use plastics. “There are different ways of processing the brewery effluent and there are a lot of variables I can change that will affect the resulting material. This makes the material suitable for multiple applications.” she says.

The future of packaging
We do need packaging, because food travels from one place to another and without the protection of packaging, we would have a lot more food waste. To this brilliant bioengineer, it just doesn’t make sense that we have food that only lasts for a few moments that is wrapped in plastic that lasts an eternity.
At Maker Faire Rome we care a lot about sustainability and solutions that enable circular economy models: here you will find other articles about innovative packating solutions and materials.
adaptation of an article originally published on What Design Can Do
images: What Design Can Do / Outlander Materials
author: Barbara Marcotulli
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