Forget about grilled grasshoppers...fried plastic is just around the corner

Yep, you read it right folks and it's not a conspiracy. Plastic food ....it's what's for dinner.

“What we’re trying to do overall is to take plastic or mixed waste from military operations and make it into something useful for the military,” Techtmann said. “Often, plastic is the hardest waste to deal with. Our project is trying to find ways to convert waste plastic into protein powder or nutritional supplements and lubricants. The general idea is that plastic is hard to break down using biology because it’s made up of a polymer, and its units are stuck together. To break apart the polymer, some bacteria can do this, but it’s very slow. So, to convert plastic into food quickly, we need an alternative approach.”

www.mtu.edu...

BioPROTEIN
The title of the plastic to protein powder project is BioPROTEIN (Biological Plastic Reuse by Olefin and Ester Transforming Engineered Isolates and Natural Consortia). Assistant professor of biological sciences at Michigan Tech, Stephen Techtmann, leads the team behind this project. The team includes Ting Lu, professor in bioengineering from the University of Illinois, Rebecca Ong, assistant professor of chemical engineering at MTU, David Shonnard, professor of chemical engineering and Joshua Pearce, electrical and computer engineer.

The process of turning plastic into protein powder begins by putting plastic material into a reactor that breaks down the structure of the plastic and transforms it “into an oily substance.” Bacteria then consume this substance and multiply speedily, creating “more bacteria cells, which are about 55% protein.” According to Techtmann, “the end result” looks similar to “a yeast byproduct that comes from brewing beer.” The scientists then dry out this byproduct, leading to the creation of an edible protein powder.

borgenproject.org...

Another similar article of the process:

How does it work? Plastic is identified, cleaned and ground up into confetti. This plastic could be meals ready to eat (MRE) wrappers from astronauts or soldiers, water bottles from tourists, plastic trash from the ocean or milk bags or jugs from your breakfast. Then, heat and chemical reactions break down plastic’s tight polymer chains into an oily fluid. The oily substance is fed to a community of oil-eating bacteria (these can be a natural collection or genetically engineered to turbocharge resulting protein for maximum nutrition) in a bioreactor, which grow quickly on their oily diet and produce more bacterial cells that are about 55 % protein. The machines are integrated together with open source electronics and software from Western’s Free Appropriate Sustainability Technology (FAST) lab run on electricity from solar photovoltaic panels and from waste gas from the pyrolysis reactor run through a generator.

***SNIP***

Progress to-date:

All of the subsystems have been proven and we have demonstrated plastic can be converted into protein. Current work is focusing on improving the efficiency of the process, integrating the sub-components, and ensuring that the resultant protein powder is safe to eat.

For a summary of the approach see: Laura G. Schaerer, Ruochen Wu, Lindsay I. Putman, Joshua M. Pearce, Ting Lu, David R. Shonnard, Rebecca G. Ong, Stephen M. Techtmann, Killing two birds with one stone: chemical and biological upcycling of polyethylene terephthalate plastics into food,Trends in Biotechnology,2022, doi.org... Academia Open Access

space.uwo.ca... d_natural_consortia.html

So instead of finding ways to lessen our dependency on plastic, let's make it edible and call it food. Well, we're all good then. I guess if we're going to be integrated with AI chips and such, we might as well incorporate plastic into our bodies as well. And looking at some of the plastic surgery patients, we are already there.

We certainly DO need to do something about all the plastic we're producing. I don't believe eating it is the answer. But before pouring more money into the project, maybe do the research on the "ensuring that the resultant protein powder is safe to eat" part. Even if they don't feed it directly to humans, they could feed it to short term animals such as chickens or even the bugs they want us to eat. I don't trust them one bit. This could be done quite covertly like all the other crap they poison us with. They've been working on this at least since 2020 and probably much earlier. I feel sorry for third world countries because they're most likely to be the first guinea pigs for such an atrocity.

There may be one good thing to come of it, zero calories???? PLEASE be zero calories.....please please please please please. Peanuts, get your Styrofoam peanuts here... peeaaaNUTS.....


It's too bad we can't stop all the evil that's being done to our food. It makes one want to be a food minimalist. Food fatigue, here I come.

How to Eat Oats Every Day and Never Get Bored
www.foodandwine.com...

a reply to: StoutBroux

Technically we have been eating plastic for many years. It is called American cheese. In most countries, it could not legally be called cheese. Read the ingredients if you don't believe me.

They (the demented 1%) want us eating bugs, feces, corpes, and now garbage plastic! It just gets better and better.
These people are absolutely criminally insane and see us as trash

Not quite plastic, but pretty darn close.

m.youtube.com...
Deep fried starch tooth picks anyone?
a reply to: StoutBroux

Yummy....I wonder if they'll be able to mold it to look like a turkey of season it to taste like pumpkin pie?

There comes a point where all you can do is shake your head and laugh...as you vow to fast for the next year.

Oh great, now I am ashamed to say I went to MTU. Darn it, I am from the Houghton-Hancock area. I suppose all the teachers there studying this are from other areas. It would be all right to find how to make plastic safely degrade, but putting it into our food is nuts. I suppose the University is chasing government bucks.

I think they should mandate ALL scientists and politicians to eat it regularly for two years before they allow it to even be tested on us

Hey.

Who said those plastic fruits and veggies in the pretend plastic kitchen in the pretend plastic house weren’t things to idolize as kids?

That's it! I'm only eating flowers and grass that I harvest myself and make into soup! ..... I am so done with this bull. We talk all the time about how the American diet is killing us... and now we will embalm ourselves before we pass with plastic in the form of things we eat. I wonder if we die and are cremated will it be more toxic due to plastics stored in our body. I mean I saw an article this morning about Japanese men with plastics found in their smooth muscle might cause erectile dysfunction. It was a very small study. Need 25 more to make a decent ample size but... Com on when will this end!

originally posted by: BeyondKnowledge3
a reply to: StoutBroux

Technically we have been eating plastic for many years. It is called American cheese. In most countries, it could not legally be called cheese. Read the ingredients if you don't believe me.

Haha I was going to bring this up as well...BUT I will add some links about American Cheese.....Not me saying it is lol

Is American Cheese Real Cheese? - LINK

American cheese is not a total fraud. There is some true cheese in there! That vibrant orange color might clue you into the most common variety, cheddar. Some brands of American cheese also contain Colby, which results in a lighter color. This base cheese is combined with a mixture of whey, milk proteins and emulsifying salts, which makes it different than a traditional cheese. The added ingredients allow a slice to melt without breaking or turning greasy, providing that perfect cheese pull

What Is American Cheese? - LINK

American cheese is a processed cheese made from a blend of cheeses and other flavor-and texture-enhancing ingredients; whereas cheddar is a singular, natural cheese made from pressed and salted curds from 100 percent cow’s milk (raw or pasteurized) that has been coagulated with rennet. American cheese has a soft texture while cheddar is hard and crumbly. Because American cheese contains emulsifiers, it keeps the cheese creamy as it melts. Cheddar doesn’t contain emulsifiers, so it separates when it melts.

More
Why Wood Pulp In Your Parmesan Won’t Kill You - LINK
The Mystery of Nacho Cheese Solved: It's Not a Real Cheese - LINK

a reply to: StoutBroux

Competition.... Great... Now you even get a choice. Bugs or plastic! See that's how your freedom works

Just like a US election, you will make a choice because freedom...

originally posted by: Terpene
a reply to: StoutBroux

Competition.... Great... Now you even get a choice. Bugs or plastic! See that's how your freedom works

Just like a US election, you will make a choice because freedom...

Your side is begging for this #. You support it. Voting has its consequences. Dinner is on me.

a reply to: StoutBroux
Meh, plastics are mostly just chains of hydrogen and carbon (hydrocarbons), add oxygen and you have carbohydrates.

Make them short enough and you can have something like bacteria or yeast create proteins with them. Or you can use just yeast and seal it off from the air and make booze.

As for american cheese, all cheeses are plastics if you go by the definition of plastic as something made up of long chains that clump together, like proteins. In cheese making rennet (natural or artificial) is used to get casein in milk to undergo polymerization. The same thing happens with tofu, except gypsum or nigari are used for the polymerization.

a reply to: KrustyKrab

What's my side?

Seems like encrusted mental abilities are a problem here...

If voting changed anything it would be illegal... But you surely are entitled to your illusions...

See you when you're old enough to realize that politics never changes anything. And that sides are a tool to fool the easily fooled.

Maybe you want to talk about your side? As you seem to be in that mindset, at least with your side you're not out of your element!
so please enlighten us about the sides! that ought to be interesting

originally posted by: ScarletDarkness
They (the demented 1%) want us eating bugs, feces, corpes, and now garbage plastic! It just gets better and better.
These people are absolutely criminally insane and see us as trash

GIGO

originally posted by: Dalamax
GIGO

GIGO doesn't seem to be apply here.

Pretty sure you can eat the most nutritionally perfect foods and still end up putting out crap.

Or you can eat corpses, bugs,sh!t and plastic

I get it, if you don’t eat you dont crap, if you dont crap you die.

Simples.

a reply to: daskakik

originally posted by: Dalamax
Or you can eat corpses, bugs,sh!t and plastic

If you can digest it your body doesn't care. It just needs a source of nutrients.

I get it, if you don’t eat you dont crap, if you dont crap you die.

No, if you don't eat you die.

The point was that if you eat grass fed beef, free range chicken, whole grains and organic fruit you will still turn it into sh!t so it isn't GIGO, no matter what you eat all you put out is crap.

That isn't GIGO.

a reply to: daskakik

There was a dude once in a camp that couldn't # for 10 days because public toilets... Don't ask... his intestines bursted and it was straight to emergency...
you can definitely die from not #ing...

If you can digest it.

Your body certainly does care what you eat, allergies are a thing. As are intolerances.

Try eating horse sh!t for a week and tell me how you feel

If your feeling bonza after a week try not crapping for a week and tell me how your doing.

Better yet get a straw and drink bin juice for a couple of days, chew on some maggots and leave me something in your last wil and testament 😂

a reply to: daskakik

Sure.
Because we don't already have enough plastics in our bodies.

Lets add more.

At least they are being open about trying to kill us faster I guess.