Current plastic waste management methods are costly and harmful to the environment and common biodegradable alternatives, like soggy paper straws, fall short as a replacement.
MetaCycler BioInnovations has changed that by creating a better bio-based plastic alternative that combines the flexible properties of traditional plastic and is 100 per cent biodegradable. The Velocity startup produces polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA), a biodegradable polymer, by engineering bacteria to convert waste from milk and cheese production. It's a solution that upcycles waste from the dairy industry into cost-effective, sustainable bio-based plastics.
"There's a shift towards sustainable materials like seaweed and sugarcane, but their material properties often fall short compared to conventional plastics," says Eugenia Dadzie, co-founder and director of communications at MetaCycler. "At MetaCycler, we extract the PHA that can be formed into pellets for plastic manufacturers to use. Our startup tackles the problem of food waste and plastic pollution in one solution."
Dadzie met her co-founders Nicole LeBlanc and Aranksha Thakor as PhD students under the supervision of Dr. Trevor Charles, a biology professor at Waterloo.
From left to right: MetaCycler BioInnovations co-founders Dadzie, Nicole LeBlanc and Jonathan Parkes. Aranksha Thakor not pictured.
MetaCycler started as a research project by Thakor, collaborating with dairy processing company, Fairlife. The company approached Dr. Charles' lab, seeking innovative ways to repurpose their waste production.
Dr. Charles saw the potential of commercializing Thakor's work and brought the team together due to their similar research on molecular biology. Together with Jonathan Parkes, a PhD student from the University of Guelph, they established MetaCycler.
In just two years, the startup has secured funding from United College's GreenHouse Social Impact incubator, Waterloo's Velocity incubator and other Waterloo programs. In September 2024, Dadzie and LeBlanc joined the inaugural Entrepreneurial PhD Fellowship program at the Conrad School of Entrepreneurship and Business, where they are commercializing this sustainable plastic solutions while continuing their doctoral studies.
"Waterloo's strength in research and innovation has become very central to my academic journey," Dadzie says. "Although I'm on a different career path than I originally envisioned, I enjoy being in an environment that encourages you to think outside the box, and it changed the way I saw entrepreneurship."
Go inside MetaCycler's lab to see how it's turning food waste into a new bioplastic
