THE US ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY estimates that in the United States alone , food waste — the most common material sent to and incinerated in landfills — is associated with 170 million metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions . Scientists like Nathalie Gontard , research director at the Agropolymer Engineering and Emerging Technologies Unit at INRAE Montpellier in France , are looking for ways to derive value from food waste , creating plastic that ’ s both durable enough for consumer goods and biodegradable . Gontard notes that when traditional plastic is repurposed into another form , it still continues degrading into micro and nano particles , slowly but steadily accumulating in the environment .

Leftover banana peels , carrot slices , and rice that might normally end up in a landfill can now be used to create compostable plastics found in T-shirts and sunglasses . Gontard ’ s laboratory is developing polyhydroxyalkanoates ( PHAs ) similar to those produced by microorganisms found in food waste . These PHAs perform like traditional plastics but are also biodegradable . Canadian climate biotech company Genecis — one of eight finalists for last year ’ s HP-sponsored Tom Ford Plastic Innovation Prize — is pursuing a similar strategy , engineering bioplastics such as PHAs using bacteria from food refuse . The plastic that results can be converted into everything from single-use food packaging to automotive parts .