This tiny sachet the size of a sugar packet can be placed in a crate of fruit and it makes the produce last roughly three times longer than usual. The technology, from a startup called Hazel Technologies, was created as a simple way to tackle one piece of the world’s problem with food waste. In the U.S. alone, each year, $218 billion is spent growing, processing, delivering, and throwing out 52 million tons of uneaten food, often because it goes bad before someone can eat it. Another 10 million tons of food never makes it off farms. “Agriculture is central to human existence, but despite that, we haven’t had nearly the same level of technological revolutions that we have in other world systems like energy or transportation or medicine,” says Aidan Mouat, the CEO of Hazel Technologies. “So I saw a real opportunity there.” [Photo: Hazel Technologies] Mouat cofounded the company as a postdoctoral student at Northwestern University. A fellow student and cofounder was studying a way to control the pathways that make produce ripen and eventually decay by mimicking the natural process; Mouat was studying the use of biodegradable, nontoxic materials that could control the same type of […]
Latest Articles
Using Candy and Jam to Protect Brazil’s Amazon Rainforest
Takeaways: Luiz Henrique Lopes Ferreira is a 22-year-old who makes and sells candies, jam and liqueurs from more than a hundred varieties of local...
These Upcycled Bricks Filter Pollution from Rainwater Runoff
Takeaways: AquiPor Technologies have created bricks that absorb runoff water and pollution from rainwater runoff.
The runoff management prevents particle pollution from reaching rivers...
The Secret to Saving Mountain Gorillas
Takeaways: 40 years ago, the population of mountain gorillas was listed as 'critically endangered'; now there are over 1000 gorillas.
One of the reasons...
Recycling Partnership Plans to Collect a Billion Pounds of Recyclables Each Year
Takeaways: The Recycling Partnership has successfully diverted more than 770 million pounds of waste from landfills.
They started in 2014 and have helped communities...
Minimass Is a 3D-Printed Solution to a Problem
Takeaways: Minimass is a 3D printed concrete beam that aims to reduce the carbon footprint in the construction industry.
This can reduce the amount...
France Produces Offshore Wind Power For the First Time
Takeaways: The Saint-Naizaire offshore wind farm in western France has produced the first megawatt-hours from French offshore wind.
France is expected to have 50...