SHOW NOTES:

Joanna Sadler wants us to think about plastics differently. Can we shift our mindsets to regard plastics not as a waste product and a problem, but as a resource and an opportunity?

Joanna and her colleagues at the University of Edinburgh have used E. coli to transform a molecule derived from PET plastic into the highly valuable industrial chemical vanillin. 

Vanillin is a high-value molecule used across the agrichemical and pharmaceutical industries—not to mention its culinary uses.  Demand for vanillin cannot be obtained from natural sources such as vanilla beans. Much of today’s vanillin is produced directly from petroleum. 

Joanna is interviewed by Joanne James. Joanne served for many years as the finance administrator for Newfield Central Schools in Newfield, New York.  She is presently an elected official on the Newfield Town Board. 

Joanna and Joanne discuss how we can make vanillin production sustainable and tackle the plastics waste process at the same time. 

If we can use plastics to make vanillin, what else can we make? 

PODCAST WEBSITE:

https://cals.cornell.edu/global-development/plastics-challenge-podcast 

FURTHER READING: 

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/jun/15/scientists-convert-used-plastic-bottles-into-vanilla-flavouring

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/plastic-waste-can-be-transformed-vanilla-flavoring-study-shows-180978046/

https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlelanding/2021/gc/d1gc00931a

SOCIAL:

Follow Joanna Sadler on Twitter at https://twitter.com/josadler10.