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Plastic Waste Can Be Transformed Into Vanilla Flavoring
Smithsonian Magazine ^ | 6/23/2021 | Elizabeth Gamillo

Posted on 06/23/2021 6:11:16 PM PDT by Right Wing Vegan

Scientists have found an innovative approach to combat the global plastic waste crisis and make something sweeter in the process.

To meet the demands for vanillin, the primary component of vanilla bean extract, and reduce plastic waste, researchers are converting plastic into vanilla flavoring using genetically engineered bacteria, according to a new study published in Green Chemistry. This study marks the first time researchers brewed up a "valuable" chemical compound from plastic waste, reports Damian Carrington for the Guardian.

"This is the first example of using a biological system to upcycle plastic waste into a valuable industrial chemical and this has very exciting implications for the circular economy," study author Joanna Sadler, a biochemist at the University of Edinburgh, says in a statement.

As a lucrative spice, vanilla has a market value predicted to reach $724.5 million by 2025 as demand rapidly increases, reports Kate Ng for the Independent.

Vanillin is what gives vanilla its signature sweet aroma and potent flavor. It is found in various items, including dairy products, soda, and cosmetics, reports Asha C. Gilbert for USA Today. Normally, the chemical compound is distilled from the extract of vanilla beans; however, it can also be made synthetically. Eighty-five percent of the world's vanilla is synthesized from fossil fuels in a two-step process, per the Independent. Vanillin is produced artificially to meet demands that the vanilla bean supply can't meet, reports Yasemin Saplakoglu for Live Science.

Currently, single-use plastics lose 95 percent of their value after use, causing a $110 billion loss to global markets every year, USA Today reports. For every one million plastic bottles sold each minute globally, only 14 percent is recycled, reports the Guardian.

(Excerpt) Read more at smithsonianmag.com ...


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To: Right Wing Vegan

Throw in a shipment of canned genetically engineered bat soup-it will fly off the shelves over there...


21 posted on 06/23/2021 6:57:16 PM PDT by Texan5 ("You've got to saddle up your boys, you've got to draw a hard line...")
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To: Texan5

Wish I could afford that diet. I’m working on being able to produce as much as we can here.


22 posted on 06/23/2021 7:03:39 PM PDT by Pollard
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To: Right Wing Vegan

It wouldn’t be plastic vanilla, it would be bacteria poop vanilla.


23 posted on 06/23/2021 7:08:32 PM PDT by Savage Rider
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To: Pollard

I grow as many of my own veggies as I can-if I can get more acreage later, I can expand that into selling the surplus, along with eggs from my chickens and goat milk products-I grew up on a ranch in a remote area of W Texas, and have lived the natural life since-I prefer it...

The non-big box grocery store 20 miles away caters to natural living types by carrying a lot of organic stuff-there are a lot of us out here...


24 posted on 06/23/2021 7:13:56 PM PDT by Texan5 ("You've got to saddle up your boys, you've got to draw a hard line...")
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To: Texan5
The non-big box grocery store 20 miles away caters to natural living types by carrying a lot of organic stuff-there are a lot of us out here...

Yeah, there's nothing like that here in the MO Ozarks. My neighbors grow gardens and are big on covering them with white powder once or twice a season for pests and the soil with white powder fertilizer. You can pretty much count on Farmer's Market items having had a similar treatment. AG out here is beef cattle.

25 posted on 06/23/2021 7:23:48 PM PDT by Pollard
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To: Right Wing Vegan

So much for vanilla white privilege.


26 posted on 06/23/2021 7:25:39 PM PDT by lightman (I am a binary Trinitarian. Deal with it!)
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To: Right Wing Vegan

Thanks again, Science!


27 posted on 06/23/2021 7:28:52 PM PDT by Bloodandgravy (Power likes to walk on crooked legs)
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To: Right Wing Vegan

It’s a short skip and a jump to Soylent Green from here.


28 posted on 06/23/2021 7:50:13 PM PDT by Beowulf9
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To: Savage Rider

It wouldn’t be plastic vanilla, it would be bacteria poop vanilla
——————
I met a guy in the 1990s who worked for a Swiss company that made scents and flavors. He told us that their company made the raspberry flavoring for Snapple drinks. It was pooped out by bacteria. They could call it “natural” flavoring bc bacteria is natural (as opposed to chemicals in test tubes?).


29 posted on 06/23/2021 8:27:09 PM PDT by married21 (As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.)
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To: Right Wing Vegan

I’ve been convinced for years that pumpkin spice flavor is some recycled industrial machining fluid or hydraulic oil. Seems I was right.


30 posted on 06/23/2021 9:23:41 PM PDT by Andrewksu
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To: Right Wing Vegan

Chocolate has ground-up cockroach parts and vanilla can contain plastic waste. How’s strawberry flavor made, anyone know?


31 posted on 06/24/2021 12:17:01 AM PDT by Jyotishi (Seeking the truth, a fact at a time.)
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To: Right Wing Vegan

My question, is this crap (technology) going to be used in commercial applications???

...I.e. Chips Ahoy cookies/Little Debbie Cakes, etc. are going to be flavored with plastic/faux vanilla?

:(


32 posted on 06/24/2021 12:28:15 AM PDT by Freedom56v2 (If I wanted to live in China, I would move there!)
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To: Right Wing Vegan

85% of vanilla is fake...?

Don’t want no mo.


33 posted on 06/24/2021 12:50:27 AM PDT by right way right (May we remain sober over mere men, for God really is our only true hope. )
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To: Right Wing Vegan

IF they can chemically make you think that turkey meat is BACON-—
They can chemically feed you ANYTHING.


34 posted on 06/24/2021 6:54:38 AM PDT by ridesthemiles ( )
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To: Freedom56v2

You might want to make those baked goods from scratch at home from fresh organic ingredients, if you just must eat them-it is at least somewhat healthier...

If you read the labels on those packaged cookies/Little Debbie cakes, etc, etc-they have so many artificial ingredients that they are already frankenfood-so what difference would another one make? They already have processed, refined sugar and various other sugars like corn syrup, sucrose, etc-refined sugar/carbs are food for obesity-and many oncologists call it “cancer food” too...


35 posted on 06/24/2021 12:37:20 PM PDT by Texan5 ("You've got to saddle up your boys, you've got to draw a hard line...")
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To: Texan5

Thanks...

LOL More rhetorical...

I never buy that stuff...But I have seen people with shopping carts full of it...

I do buy real vanilla for Thanksgiving, Christmas, and/or Easter baking...gifts for family, neighbors, and cookies for the fam...


36 posted on 06/24/2021 1:27:05 PM PDT by Freedom56v2 (If I wanted to live in China, I would move there!)
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