How Regenerative Materials Will Heal an Overextended Planet
The future of sustainable supply chains is a broad shift to materials that aren’t just lower-impact but that actively restore the environment and systems they are part of.
The materials we use to make the products that meet our needs determine the form and function of every one of them. However, humanity is using 1.7 times more natural resources than Earth regenerates in a year – and doing so in a way that surpasses the planet’s ability to repair itself.
We need to rethink the materials we use and how we source and dispose of them. Technology can help us invent new materials that are regenerative and less harmful.
In the process, we will get more versatile, less-harmful materials and restore the Earth’s ability to sustain life.
Sustainable alternatives
Sustainable materials are being developed that perform as well or better than those they replace.
- Plastics: Durable but biodegradable biopolymers produced from food waste, cellulose, fungi, or crushed stone could replace some of the 350 million metric tons of plastics produced each year.
- Textiles: Fast-growing hemp and mycelium fiber leather can reduce the estimated 148 million tons of waste that the textile industry will produce by 2030.
- Construction: We can rethink building with ultra-strong “super concrete” and transparent “wood” made from diverted waste streams, and durable carpet tiles made from captured carbon, recycled vinyl, and salvaged nylon.
Replace – and repair
Renewable materials will have astounding new properties.
- A lightweight, breathable fabric made of cellulose fibers and seaweed could infuse beneficial nutrients through the wearer’s skin.
- Plants enhanced with nanoparticles could provide ambient off-grid lighting and oxygen.
- Building materials that can sense and adapt to their surroundings could convert light, water, heat, bacteria, greenhouse gases, and biowaste into power, oxygen, and drinking water – and maintain and repair themselves.
Actively regenerating the environment
Technology will be key to developing self-sustaining, ecosystem-restoring, and waste-consuming future materials.
- Living mixtures of microalgae and bacterial cellulose could be 3D-printed into artificial leaves that turn water and CO2 into oxygen, energy, or artificial skin.
- Agricultural waste like pineapple leaves and coffee grounds could be made into textiles that wear well, then degrade quickly to return nutrients to the ground.
- Bacteria could ingest sewage sludge and excrete it as biopolymers for biodegradable, repeatedly recyclable plastics.
Designing beyond durability
Instead of extraction, processing, consumption, and disposal, we will find ways to reuse materials, restore dwindling natural resources, and repair the damage we’ve done. In the process, we will get more versatile, less-harmful materials and restore the Earth’s ability to sustain life.
