Team:PuiChing Macau/Implementation
Implementation Plan
At the very beginning of our iGEM journey this year, we decided to make a small sample, then apply it in real life. But, we know that there would be a long time to make the cut to bring our products to reality, but we are clear about how to accomplish our complete product.
We have had a conversation with Bluepha (A synthetic biology PHA based company in China) and got a better understanding of how an iGEM team could develop into a company. Therefore, we will also form up a limited company that we can benefit from and earn our future research funding.
We will use the funding and negotiate with the Macau government to apply for an area to build a more complete and efficient food waste treating center situated on an artificial island. (A new land reclamation island) So far we may consider Land D where our center will be situated for Land D was planned for multipurpose industries, and our processing center will keep at least a 1-kilometer distance with the residential area.
Our food waste treating center will be storing tons of chemicals and food waste, we will have high level(HEPA) air filter machines and our bioplastic will go through sterilization treatment to make sure our product will not contain E.coli. [1]
Our operation model will refer to Nam Yue Industrial and Technology Park in Macau.
In order to upcycle the food waste from hotels to bioplastics, we planned to keep collecting separated food waste. Wynn, the hotel we cooperated with, has an AI system to identify the percentage of different varieties of food waste and then allow them to modify the future food purchase. We believe that based on this AI system, we could adapt it into an auto food waste collection system.
Our end users would be local hotels such as Wynn since they have a large number of customers who might cause food waste and plastic wasting issues, and it will be easier for future food waste collection. We will transport the food waste we collected from hotels to the center and use the AI system technique to identify and predict the best food combination, and the leftover parts will be sent to Macau’s original food waste department to let it ferment and use it for fertilizing.[2]
Our final product will be an eco-friendly plastic material, which will be used for food packaging and disposable packaging. The product will be provided for the Hotels to package their tableware, tissues etc. We will sell at a low price.
Since we are going to provide eco-friendly packaging material, our lab will also follow the guidelines [3] from the Macau government which will help us to manage the laboratory and control the quality of our products. Containment Level 1 lab will help in general to avoid and reduce risks.
Then, we will send our product samples to testing companies to fit the food packaging regulation of Macau and the food packaging standard of China which is the Hygienic standards for users in food containers and packaging materials (2016) [4] .
Figure 1: Our Overall Implementation Plan
So far, even though some residents in Macau are environmentally conscious, they are still the minority. We do have garbage bins for recycling, but the effectiveness is still very low, not everyone has recycling thoughts or taking this seriously. Therefore, this is a great chance to educate the public and promote bioplastic products to more people, let all Macau citizens attempt to solve the food waste problem together, and inspire more people. Our products would raise the awareness of the food waste problem and PLA and promote upcycle ideas to the public, which can educate the youngsters too.
However, all of the plans need to be considered and modelled again and again, so that the final system will work successfully. Through doing experiments in labs, we also found out that it was hard to make our thoughts successful. It took practice to really get those little pieces of PLA. We believe that our hard work will finally take our product to the real world. Last but not least, we will keep going to the final destination and make it come true.
Reference
[1]E-coli prevention, WHO, (2018),
https://www.who.int/zh/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/e-coli
[2]Macau Food Waste Recycling Pilot Program, DSPA,(2019)
https://www.dspa.gov.mo/richtext_foodwasterecycling.aspx?a_id=1528441041
[3]Macao Special Administrative Region Government Health Bureau Public health laboratory service. Clinical Laboratory Biosafety Guidelines(2009),
http://www.ssm.gov.mo/pcainfo/doc/2009LabSafetyGuide1_3.pdf
[4]The Hygienic standards for users in food containers and packaging materials (GB 9685), 2016, National Health Commission of People’s Republic of China.