DARPA wants to feed us soldiers microbes grown on waste plastic
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is funding research to turn military plastic waste into a variety of different useful products, including food for military personnel.
According to Ars Technica, DARPA first put out a call in 2019 for projects to deal with the large amounts of plastic waste produced by military units when they work in remote locations.
The agency wanted a system that could convert plastic wrappers, water bottles and other plastic waste into usable products, such as fuel and rations. The system would have to be compact enough to fit in a Humvee, capable of running on low amounts of energy and use plastic-eating microbes.
DARPA’s goal, according to microbiologist Stephen Techtmann, who works at Michigan Technological University, is not to feed soldiers products made from the plastic, but the microbes themselves that digest and transform it. Techtmann and his team believe the technology will be available soon, and are currently conducting toxicity testing to ensure that plastic-eating microbes are safe for human consumption.
The system being developed by Michigan Tech involves using a small shredder to reduce plastic waste in size, before burning it and subject it to chemical treatment which allows it to be digested by special bacteria. These bacteria were found in compost piles. Many naturally occurring bacteria already have the ability to digest plastics.
After the bacteria have consumed the specially prepared plastic, they are then dried into a powder that “smells a bit like nutritional yeast” and has a balanced nutritional profile of protein, carbohydrates and fats.
Techtmann notes that there is still a significant problem, the “ick factor,” to be overcome for consumers, even in the military, but that personnel in remove locations and disaster zones would probably have less concern if the choice were between eating microbes and eating nothing.
“I think there’s a bit less of a concern about the ick factor,” said Techtmann, “if it’s really just, ‘This is going to keep me alive for another day or two.’”
A number of companies around the world are working to produce edible microbes, including a Finnish company called Solar Foods, which has created a powder that is already approved for sale in Singapore. The company is currently applying for approval for their product in the EU and the UK.
