Step by Step Towards a Circular Economy
“There is no trash, just unused resources”: Innovative Zurich-based companies are taking this maxim and making it their own by turning food and other “waste” into usable products – the new word on the block is upcycling.
Anyone ordering their morning coffee-to-go will most likely think little about what they’re leaving behind, which is, apart from the friendly barista, about 16 grams of coffee grounds per brew. That amounts to a good few kilos at places where lots of coffee is sold. And coffee grounds – as our mothers are still very much aware – should never be burned or binned, as it is made up of valuable cellulose that is easily composted.
The value of this “residue” has been recognized by the team behind the Zurich-based startup Zwinglipilz. The company, who borrows its name from the Swiss reformer Ulrich Zwingli, is geared towards initiating a reformation of its own, this time in the circular economy sector. Founded by brothers Phil and Yves Aarab, the company not only collects coffee grounds and uses them as a substrate for growing a whole range of oyster mushrooms (an increasingly popular cultivated mushroom variety), they also take the plastic buckets that accumulate in large numbers (e.g. for jam) from partner entrepreneurs to grow the mushrooms in. Once the buckets have been used several times and are no longer good for use in cultivation, the plastic is converted into filaments for 3D printers. "Our goal is zero-waste production at all stages within a completely closed loop," state the two brothers on their website. By the way, Zwinglipilz also offers a grow-it-yourself product – the oyster mushrooms can be grown at home in a special bag following a manageable procedure.
Another Zurich-based company, Fluid Solids on Hohlstrasse, also advocates the circular economy. Here, all kinds of agricultural and other production chain residual waste is used to make a granulate that is easily liquefied, shaped and then solidified into any number of desired forms. This is how, for example, new compostable cutlery is created for a better to-go culture. FluidSolids has had chemists, materials engineers and plastics technologists working tirelessly since 2011 to make the world a less wasteful place. FluidSolids is a flexible technology that can be used to recycle a broad range of bio-based materials and almost all cellulosic waste. It is used to produce a so-called biocomposite that can take a wide variety of forms. FluidSolids was founded by the Zurich-born designer Beat Karrer whose company is now located at Hohlstrasse in a cluster of innovative businesses. We will be hearing more exciting news from FluidSolids in the future.
It's great to see the circular economy benefit from Switzerland’s joy of inventing – and that the end of life for these new products is a return to fertile soil.