Upcycling Mixed Plastic Waste into Agricultural Products

Upcycling Mixed Plastic Waste into Agricultural Products is sponsored by NSF. This opportunity supports mission-aligned projects and measurable outcomes.

LAKE MARY, FL, 32746-3609 **Number of Employees:** 5 **Socially and Economically Disadvantaged:** No #### SBIR/STTR Involvement Year of first award: 2023 **Up to 10 of the most recent awards are being displayed. ** To view all of this company's awards, visit the Award Data search page.

#### SBIR Phase II: Upcycling Mixed Plastic Waste into Agricultural Products _**Amount:** $1,162,886**Topic:** ET_ The broader/commercial impact of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project is to address the growing problem of mixed plastic waste by transforming that waste into something useful: an organic fertilizer that improves soil health.

Most plastic waste today cannot be recycled and ends up in landfills or the environment, especially foam packaging and plastic films. This project aims to solve that problem by creating a system that chemically and biologically converts difficult-to-recycle plastics into a valuable product that farmers and gardeners can use.

The result is a cleaner environment, reduced landfill burden, and a new domestic source of regenerative fertilizer. The project is also expected to create jobs and new revenue streams by combining waste recovery with sustainable agriculture. If successful, it could become a model for local recycling solutions that work in both urban and rural communities.

The technical innovation in this project lies in using genetically modified microbes to help consume and convert melted-down plastic waste into a form that soil-dwelling decomposers can process into nutrient-rich castings. This approach brings together advances in plastic processing, microbial engineering, and soil science.

Phase II research will focus on developing an integrated approach, iteratively combining optimized pyrolysis with advanced microbial digestion and enzyme-driven processes, to effectively convert mixed plastic waste into valuable agricultural products—primarily nutrient-rich worm castings. Additionally, enzyme by-products will be developed into market-ready solutions for microplastic-contaminated soil remediation.

It will systematically tackle each stage—pyrolysis optimization, microbial genetic engineering, enzyme production, bioreactor design, and final agricultural validation— to ensure scalability and commercial readiness. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

#### Advanced Autonomous Black Soldier Fly Larval Upcycling For Agricultural Protein Production & Composting Via Cellular Automata Machine Learning _**Amount:** $125,000**Topic:** 8. 12_ This project seeks to bolster the efficiency and viability of small farms by improving and automating black soldier fly larvae (BSFL) composters.

These composters are currently used by many farms for their ability to turn farm waste biomass from plants and animals into a highly prized feed for fowl and fish. However inconveniently for small farms larval feed must be used within 1-5 days or it will pupate into flies and be lost. For small farmers current means of larval preservation are sorely misaligned with their needs.

Huge investments in industrial BSFL preservation machines or the improvised use of appliances like ovens and freezers shared for home food use are the only options.

To solve the disconnect the research proposed makes novel use of machine learning and recycles the thermal energy produced in the composting process to fully automate the preservation of the larval harvest onboard the composter — without any inputs from the farmer necessary. This allows for the sustainable production of valuable feed fully preserved and ready for use by the farmer on-demand.

Such technology would save time in waste disposal trips to the feed store and reduce feed costs critical for rural and low-income farms. Successful energy autonomy of the system would further allow the system's use anywhere year-round and during imperfect climate conditions.

In summary the results of this project would be transformative to a farmer's way of life: removing large burdens in time and costs all while enabling more sustainability at small farm scale.

#### SBIR Phase I: Bioreactors for Upcycling Pyrolyzed Polystyrene Waste into Organic Fertilizer _**Amount:** $274,718**Topic:** ET_ The broader/commercial impact of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project is to enable the recycling of common polystyrene foam waste into soil amendments: creating a valuable agricultural product out of a pernicious and ubiquitous waste.

Annually, millions of pounds of polystyrene waste fill landfills, blot roadsides, or pollute waterways – making up 80% of all ocean plastic waste. Taking centuries to decompose, when finally broken down polystyrene may have terrible impacts on health.

This project seeks to combine proven technologies with newly discovered abilities in microorganisms to digest polystyrene, to demonstrate a means by which polystyrene can be reconstituted into nutrient-rich material useful in agriculture.

Because of the vast supply of polystyrene waste and the great commercial need to dispose of it, this project taps into a commercial potential not only to provide waste disposal services to a much underserved market but can do so while simultaneously producing a valuable agricultural good.

This project supports the NSF’s mission by advancing the science of bioremediation, advancing the health and welfare of the nation by removing a harmful waste product from the environment, and supporting national prosperity by providing a much-needed service to a large industry.

_x000D_ _x000D__x000D_ This project seeks to use a unique combination of technologies to demonstrate that polystyrene foam waste can be processed and bioremediated rapidly into a soil amending “castings” ready for use in gardening, farming, or landscaping.

The project's research and development effort lies in the complex process of converting polystyrene from an unprocessed waste into both bioplastics and organic acids by way of thermal and biological methods, before further amelioration by decomposer organisms and the formation of a usable agricultural product.

Bioreactors featuring numerous strains and species of microbes never-before deployed for this purpose will be used in tandem with macro-organisms whose capabilities for this application are likewise mostly or entirely unstudied.

This research will uncover the specific abilities of numerous species to digest polystyrene waste at multiple scales and will evaluate several potential pathways through which the resulting digestate could be further processed. Large sample sizes, stepwise variances in conditions, and permutations of species’ combinations will be used to ensure statistical veracity.

These methods, coupled with the use of cutting-edge analytical equipment, will ensure a high precision in results. _x000D_ _x000D_ This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.