Out With Plastic, in With Methane-Eating Microbes

Newlight, an American biotech company based in Huntington Beach, California, created Air Carbon, a new material made from methane – a potent greenhouse gas – that can potentially resolve two problems at once: climate change and ocean plastic.

“After the microbes eat methane, they then convert that into a really special material inside themselves,” says Mark Herrema, CEO of Newlight. “It’s a meltable energy storage material, which you can purify and then form into various parts and shapes and pieces” like straws and disposable cutlery which we sell under the brand Restore, or wallets and handbags under the brand Covalent.

Researchers fill a tank with saltwater and microbes, then air and methane – from an abandoned coal mine and other sources – are added to start the process of generating cells that are then extracted. The material is made out of those cells and is conceived to degrade into cellulose, a food source for microbes. “Because it’s a material that’s grown by life and is recognized by life, it’s ocean degradable.”