Issue 02/2019

Application News
PHA water bottle
coming soon
It may sound like California Dreamin’ but the new bottle,
launched under the brand name Cove, is the first water
bottle of water made of PHA.
The material the bottle is made of is PHA
polyhydroxyalkanoate, an FDA-approved, naturally occurring
biopolymer. It’s biodegradable, compostable, produces zero
toxic waste, and breaks down into CO 2
, water, and organic
waste. This will happen in compost or a landfill, and even in
the ocean, says Alex Totterman, Cove’s CEO.
Cove PBC (Venice, California, USA) is not yet producing at
scale. However, according to the company, all manufacturing,
filling, and packing for the California launch will take place
in Los Angeles (USA) to minimize the environmental impact
of the bottle’s production.
“As Cove expands, we will set up multiple manufacturing
and packing facilities across the US.
This will allow us to localize production
and minimize transportation. Cove
is not interested in shipping bottled
water across oceans and continents,”
said the company.
Cove is launching in California in 2019. MT
www.drinkcove.com
Biodegradable
Mardi Gras Beads
When Cologne (Germany) and Rio de Janeiro (Brazil)
celebrate their carnival, New Orleans (Louisiana, USA)
has its Mardi Gras. And beads are an important part of it.
However, after the parades ten thousands of kilograms (46
tonnes in 2017 according to Reuters) of Mardi Gras beads and
doubloons enter the environment each year.
Professor Naohiro Kato, a biologist at Louisiana State Univ.
is now developing an innovative way to solve this problem by
creating biodegradable Mardi Gras beads.
One of his students accidentally discovered the basic
ingredients Kato has refined to produce biodegradable Mardi
Gras beads: microalgae. Kato got down to work growing a
large quantity of microscopic algae. Louisiana’s warm climate,
sunshine, water and nutrients, such as fertilizer, make it an
ideal environment to naturally mass-produce microalgae. He
grows a species of microalgae that is easy to grow, strong
and profitable, especially for
the nutraceutical industry,
which produces vitamins and
supplements. Nutra-ceutical
companies can use microalgae
to market their products
vegetarian or vegan. MT
www.lsu.edu
Biodegradable Mardi Gras beads
and doubloons (Paige Jarreau, LSU)
bioplastics MAGAZINE [02/19] Vol. 14 37