Keeling Curve

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Project Summary / Description:

Full Cycle is leading the global transition to circular waste and material systems. Full Cycle tackles climate change and plastic pollution by transforming mixed organic wastes, such as inedible food waste, agricultural by-products and dirty paper/cardboard, into a compostable bioplastic called polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA), thus simultaneously solving two global environmental challenges. Full Cycle‚ PHA is cost-competitive with fossil-fuel-based alternatives and can be certified as food contact safe, creating the potential for widespread adoption and scale in both developed and emerging markets. The Full Cycle solution stops organic wastes from entering the landfill, reduces plastic pollution, and moves the economy towards circularity.

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Worldwide, 1.4 billion tons of food are wasted and 9 million tons of plastic pollute our oceans each year. Full Cycle's technology captures carbon from this excess organic waste, mitigating greenhouse gas emissions and repurposing waste into a high-value material that will replace single-use plastics. At end of life, Full Cycle PHA products can degrade harmlessly into the ecosystem (because our PHA is made with wild, natural, non-GMO bacteria), or ideally, be upcycled once more into virgin PHA resin. Plastic pollution has a significant impact on marine and land environments which lower-income communities rely on for agroeconomic activities. By working towards the replacement of plastic-based products with PHA, a natural and biodegradable alternative material, Full Cycle commits to a cleaner natural environment, which positively impacts the communities who rely on that environment firsthand. 

Landfills have historically been built in minority and low-income communities because of political and economic disenfranchisement which limits the ability of the community to have a say in the health and well-being of its residents and the development of specific infrastructure. Full Cycle acknowledges this history of NIMBYism and works to co-locate its waste-to-PHA facilities at or near the site of waste generation. This keeps waste local, minimizes the carbon footprint of transporting it, and prevents the outsourcing of waste to lower-income communities (or countries.) 

Climate change disproportionately impacts marginalized people around the world, serving as a threat multiplier, exacerbating existing conflicts as well as current sociopolitical structures. By relocalizing waste management and producing an environmentally-friendly plastic-alternative material, Full Cycle minimizes the shipment of waste around the world while enabling companies to switch to sustainable materials developed with the reality of global mass consumerism in mind. Full Cycle works within multiple nodes of the climate crisis to create impact.

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