PICTURE: Researchers at the Institute of Industrial Sciences at the University of Tokyo reuse food waste to build materials with bending strength comparable to concrete that still taste great After
Credit: Institute of Industrial Sciences, University of Tokyo
Tokyo, Japan – Most people don’t think much about the food scraps they throw away; However, researchers at the Institute of Industrial Sciences at the University of Tokyo have come up with a new method to reduce food waste by recycling discarded fruit and vegetable scraps into sturdy building materials.
Global industrial and household food waste accounts for hundreds of billions of pounds per year, much of which includes edible waste, such as the peels of fruits and vegetables. This unsustainable practice is both expensive and environmentally unfriendly, which is why researchers have sought new ways to recycle these organic materials into useful products.
“Our goal was to use common algae and food scraps to build materials that are at least as strong as concrete,” says Yuya Sakai, lead author of the study. “But since we were using edible food waste, we also wanted to determine if the recycling process had an impact on the flavor of the original materials.”
The researchers borrowed a concept of “hot pressing” which is typically used to make building materials from powdered wood, except they used pulverized and vacuum-dried food scraps, such as algae, cabbage leaves and orange, onion, pumpkin and banana peels as the constituent powders. The processing technique was to mix the food powder with water and seasonings, then press the mixture into a mold at high temperature. The researchers tested the flexural strength of the resulting materials and monitored their taste, smell and appearance.
“With the exception of the pumpkin-derived specimen, all of the materials exceeded our target for flexural strength,” says Kota Machida, a senior collaborator. “We also found that Chinese cabbage leaves, which produced a material more than three times stronger than concrete, could be mixed with the weaker pumpkin material to provide effective reinforcement.”
The new sturdy materials retained their edible nature and the addition of salt or sugar improved their taste without reducing their strength. In addition, the durable products were resistant to rot, fungi and insects, and did not undergo any appreciable change in appearance or taste after exposure to air for four months.
Since food waste is a global financial burden and an environmental concern, it is essential to develop methods of recycling food waste. Using these substances to prepare materials strong enough for construction projects, while retaining their edible nature and taste, opens the door to a wide range of creative applications from a single technology.
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The work will be published in the Proceedings of the 70th Annual Meeting of the Society of Materials Science, Japan under the title “Development of New Building Materials from Food Waste”
About the Institute of Industrial Sciences (IIS), University of Tokyo
Institute of Industrial Sciences (IIS), the University of Tokyo is one of the largest academic research institutes in Japan.
More than 120 research laboratories, each headed by a faculty member, includes the IIS, with more than 1,000 members, including approximately 300 staff members and 700 students actively engaged in education and research. Our activities cover almost all areas of engineering disciplines. Since its founding in 1949, IIS has worked to bridge the huge gaps that exist between academic disciplines and real-world applications.
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