New sustainable packaging developed by UBC and Wet’suwet’en First Nation – The Weather Network
Tuesday, November 15th 2022, 8:00 am – Researchers have turned waste wood from Wet’suwet’en First Nation into a “biofoam” that can biodegrade within weeks.
Despite the growing evidence that plastic pollution is extremely hazardous to human health and the environment, landfills continue to grow in size. Up to 30 per cent of global landfills consist of styrofoam, which can take over 500 years to break down.
To address this issue, a collaboration between Wet’suwet’en First Nation and a University of British Columbia (UBC) research team was formed to create an innovative packaging foam made entirely from waste wood.
The inspiration for the “biofoam” came from the need to design alternatives to plastic packaging materials like styrofoam, said Feng Jiang, assistant professor at UBC and the Canada Research Chair in Sustainable Functional Biomaterials, in an interview with The Weather Network.
