CellMore: Reducing Food Waste and Landfills while Increasing Plastic Alternatives
Location
A117
Document Type
Presentation
Type
Social Entrepreneurship (SocEnt)
UN Sustainable Development Goal
UNSDG #13: Climate Action
Start Date
24-4-2024 11:10 AM
End Date
24-4-2024 11:25 AM
Abstract
Food waste has always been a huge problem in the United States and the world. Millions of tons of food are wasted and dumped into landfills, taking up land and destroying ecosystems. Because of the increase in synthetic and genetically modified organisms used in food and significant amounts of preservatives, the food dumped in these landfills takes a very long time to decompose and return to the environment. These cesspits of bacteria, infectious microorganisms, and trash litter the United States and cause significant harm to local ecosystems and humans. They also release huge amounts of methane and carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, contributing to climate change. Plastic pollution and contamination is also a significant issue. With the creation of plastics that are so essential to the lives of every human on the planet, microplastics contaminate the environment and kill humans and wildlife. The unused and discarded plastics take eons to decompose and persist in the environment, causing a detrimental effect on biodiversity, the lives of animals, and ecosystems as a whole. The production of plastics also contributes to climate change, by releasing huge amounts of greenhouse gasses and other poisonous toxins into the environment and atmosphere. With our company, CellMore, we aim to alleviate both problems simultaneously. CellMore takes discarded food waste high in cellulose and uses it to extract cellulose, which can be used to make a plastic-like material that is very biodegradable and helps the environment. We plan to partner with companies that produce high amounts of food waste, such as peanut companies. Peanut shells are extraordinarily high in cellulose and are easy to extract from. By partnering with these companies and using their waste, we have almost zero materials costs for our company. It would be possible to seek revenue from taking their waste, as companies often have to pay large amounts of money to transport and dispose of their food waste. After gaining the food waste from the companies, there will be a significant starting cost to get the machines necessary to perform the cellulose extraction process on the food waste and then convert it to a usable medium. After the initial expenses, however, all other costs are very minimal, including the cost to run the machines and maintain them. After the company has made enough money to pay off the machines that we bought at the initialization of the company, all extra proceeds will go towards combating plastic waste and cleaning up the ocean. They will also go towards cleaning up landfills and ecosystem restoration efforts. By creating a product that reduces food waste and also contributes to finding plastic alternatives, we plan to create a huge environmental impact on the US and the world as a whole. This SEV will help the environment in a multitude of ways and achieve its goal of climate action by helping the environment.
CellMore: Reducing Food Waste and Landfills while Increasing Plastic Alternatives
A117
Food waste has always been a huge problem in the United States and the world. Millions of tons of food are wasted and dumped into landfills, taking up land and destroying ecosystems. Because of the increase in synthetic and genetically modified organisms used in food and significant amounts of preservatives, the food dumped in these landfills takes a very long time to decompose and return to the environment. These cesspits of bacteria, infectious microorganisms, and trash litter the United States and cause significant harm to local ecosystems and humans. They also release huge amounts of methane and carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, contributing to climate change. Plastic pollution and contamination is also a significant issue. With the creation of plastics that are so essential to the lives of every human on the planet, microplastics contaminate the environment and kill humans and wildlife. The unused and discarded plastics take eons to decompose and persist in the environment, causing a detrimental effect on biodiversity, the lives of animals, and ecosystems as a whole. The production of plastics also contributes to climate change, by releasing huge amounts of greenhouse gasses and other poisonous toxins into the environment and atmosphere. With our company, CellMore, we aim to alleviate both problems simultaneously. CellMore takes discarded food waste high in cellulose and uses it to extract cellulose, which can be used to make a plastic-like material that is very biodegradable and helps the environment. We plan to partner with companies that produce high amounts of food waste, such as peanut companies. Peanut shells are extraordinarily high in cellulose and are easy to extract from. By partnering with these companies and using their waste, we have almost zero materials costs for our company. It would be possible to seek revenue from taking their waste, as companies often have to pay large amounts of money to transport and dispose of their food waste. After gaining the food waste from the companies, there will be a significant starting cost to get the machines necessary to perform the cellulose extraction process on the food waste and then convert it to a usable medium. After the initial expenses, however, all other costs are very minimal, including the cost to run the machines and maintain them. After the company has made enough money to pay off the machines that we bought at the initialization of the company, all extra proceeds will go towards combating plastic waste and cleaning up the ocean. They will also go towards cleaning up landfills and ecosystem restoration efforts. By creating a product that reduces food waste and also contributes to finding plastic alternatives, we plan to create a huge environmental impact on the US and the world as a whole. This SEV will help the environment in a multitude of ways and achieve its goal of climate action by helping the environment.