Shellfish waste

Galapagos Islands, Ecuador

Type of waste: agricultural

The Galapagos Islands are highly protected from the rest of the world. Despite their carefulness recently they have started to face the need to reduce plastic consumption for the sake of their environment. The challenges they create include labour- and energy-intensive waste management, and pollution leaking into the natural environment, threatening rich biodiversity. https://www.materiom.org/projects/galapagos-bioplastics-from-locally-abundant-biomass

Galapagos: Bioplastics from locally abundant biomass

Materiom took it upon themselves to find a solution to the pressing problem of plastic consumption in the Galapagos Islands. Along with the community and local artisans they researched and experimented with lobster shell due to it's high chitin content. Extracting chitin from the exoskeleton of these shellfish was demonstrated in order to create bioplastic