While you are drinking your morning coffee, here is a technology that suggests a different way to look at waste: researchers at Southern Illinois University have learned to use plastic waste and corn residues to create a protein base for edible cookies.
Programmable yeast — microorganisms that process raw materials into proteins, fats and organic acids — help make this possible. The resulting mass is mixed with plant-based ingredients and formed into cookies. One of the strains also gives them a vanilla aroma.
Admittedly, breakfast made from a recycled bottle is still a long way off: the product has not passed the necessary checks, and a kilogram of such cookies costs about $60. Still, the technology is especially interesting for space. NASA funded the study as part of a nutrition program for long-duration missions, where ordinary food sources are limited. Perhaps one day, on the way to Mars, waste will not be thrown away but turned into useful raw material.
