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Using worms and fungi to compost packaging

Sep 24, 2020

Using worms and fungi to compost packaging

Oyster mushroom fragment in hydrated packaging material. Compostable food packaging – those beige colored forks and spoons, or clamshells and cups with some sort of ‘eco’ labelling or branding – are becoming increasingly popular, and for good reason. Their increased use reduces our consumption of their petroleum-based counterparts. But what happens to these products when we’re done using them? It’s not hard to imagine that most of them get ‘tossed’ like they always have been,

Plant Chicago Annual Report 2019

Apr 29, 2020

Plant Chicago Annual Report 2019

Learn how Plant Chicago plans to move forward in their new space at the firehouse, including our specific programs (small business, market, education, and research) and the work achieved in the past year. We take a closer look at last year’s goals and objectives in combination with our mission to cultivate local circular economies. Annual Report 2019 #farmersmarket #annualreport #circulareconomy #programs #education #smallbusiness

Circular Economy Leaders Network Meeting Review

Feb 14, 2020

Circular Economy Leaders Network Meeting Review

This past week, Plant Chicago welcomed sixteen local small businesses to their first Circular Economy (CE) Leaders Network meeting. First of its kind, the program assists entrepreneurs in Chicago’s South Side who seek to implement sustainable practices into their existing business model. Businesses start off by receiving The Circular Economy Toolkit for Small Business and setting a primary goal that they would like to achieve by the end of this year. The toolkit defines Circu

Scoby Textiles part 2

May 29, 2019

Scoby Textiles part 2

If you’ve been following our social media, you’ve seen periodic updates of Eva’s SCOBY textile project. Below is her summary, the final product, and thoughts on where to go next with flexible materials made from these single-celled organisms. As discussed in my initial blog post, I focused on two experimental paths: the brewing of kombucha specifically for harvesting SCOBY, and the post-harvest processing on existing leftover SCOBY. I will continue to refer to the SCOBY (Symb

A first look at SCOBY textiles

Mar 9, 2019

A first look at SCOBY textiles

Introducing Plant Chicago’s newest intern, Eva Durance, who is experimenting with SCOBYs as a means of textile production. For this project we’re partnering with fellow The Plant tenant Matt Lancor of Kombuchade, who is graciously lending us equipment, starter cultures, and technical support. I am a student at Columbia College Chicago majoring in Fashion Studies with a concentration in Fashion Merchandising and minoring in Environmental Studies. While searching through possib

Imperfect Produce April 2019 Collaboration

Feb 21, 2019

Imperfect Produce April 2019 Collaboration

For the month of April, you can support Plant Chicago using Imperfect Produce’s service! Imperfect Produce and Plant Chicago have shared goals to divert materials from the landfill while creating economic opportunity and a more equitable food system. Imperfect Produce is helping find a home for “cosmetically challenged” but perfectly delicious fruits & vegetables. They are creating economic opportunity by diverting materials from landfills, which is a central tenet of circula

Local Circular Economy Principles

Dec 19, 2018

Local Circular Economy Principles

With our focus on local, Plant Chicago thinks about circular economies from a unique angle. In 2017, Plant Chicago hosted a portion of the CE 100 meeting with the Ellen MacArthur Foundation in Chicago. We held a working group with CE 100 members and small business owners at The Plant to explore core principles of local circular systems. A mentioned in previous posts, there is no universally established definition of what a circular economy is and most of the conversation is f

Plant Chicago endorses the New Plastics Economy Global Commitment

Oct 30, 2018

Plant Chicago endorses the New Plastics Economy Global Commitment

Plant Chicago has joined voices with over 250 companies, governments, and non-profits to endorse the New Plastics Economy Global Commitment spearheaded by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation in collaboration with the UN environment. This Global Commitment to eradicate plastic waste includes many of the world’s largest packaging producers, brands, retailers and recyclers, as well as governments and NGOs. The signatory companies represent a total of 20% of all plastic packaging prod

Small businesses and the circular economy

Oct 30, 2018

Small businesses and the circular economy

Plant Chicago is located across the street from a McDonald’s, a former Wal-Mart, and several small restaurants. Wal-Mart has been making bold moves to become “zero-waste” by 2025, and is self-reporting that they are diverting over 78% of their materials from the landfill globally. McDonald’s has set ambitious goals around their packaging to be 100% “fiber based” materials coming from recycled or certified sources by 2020. The impact that these large businesses can have on sup

Human Versus Machine: Home Appliances

Aug 14, 2018

Human Versus Machine: Home Appliances

Post by John Mulrow, PhD Candidate in Civil Engineering at University of Illinois Chicago INTRODUCTION In the last Human v Machine blog we determined that humans stand little chance of matching the performance of heavy machinery the likes of an industrial compost screener. But how about for lower power tasks you might find machines doing at home? Student participants of the Women in Engineering Summer Program (WIESP) helped me investigate this question during a workshop on en

What I Learned from Standing Next to a Trash Bin

Jul 5, 2018

What I Learned from Standing Next to a Trash Bin

By Dana Greene, Materials Management Intern As an intern with Plant Chicago, I have been able to work on a variety of unique projects project related to materials management. For some, “materials management” is just a polite way to talk about trash. For others, it’s a way to change the way we think about “trash” not as a waste, but as an opportunity. Project #1: Sorting through some trash This past spring, I was fortunate enough to be able to work alongside Professor Weslynne

Human Versus Machine: Compost Screening

Jul 4, 2018

Human Versus Machine: Compost Screening

Post by John Mulrow, PhD Candidate at University of Illinois Chicago INTRODUCTION Composting is a simple and traditional circular economy practice. It returns nutrients to the soil, creates economic opportunity, and can happen at a local scale. Modern industrial composting is highly dependent on heavy equipment; loaders, grinders, screeners and dump trucks are all high-powered machines, typically fueled by petroleum products. In the circular economy of the future, renewable s

Plant Chicago Summer Interns

Jul 3, 2018

Plant Chicago Summer Interns

Help us welcome our new Plant Chicago summer interns! We are excited to have such a diverse group of college and high school students conducting circular economy research projects and working with businesses inside The Plant. Alina is a native Chicagoan from the southwest side. She is a rising third year at the University of Chicago where she plans to double major in public policy and comparative race and ethnic studies. Her interests lie in bringing education and the necessa

Would you wear a mushroom shirt?

Apr 14, 2018

Would you wear a mushroom shirt?

This spring/summer Plant Chicago is hosting artist and mycologist Xiili Bassett, assisting in her newest project titled hyphaenate. During the coming months she will be attempting to create a textile out of mycelium – the ‘root’ of fungi such as mushrooms. She will then use this fabric to create clothing. When we talk about local circular economies, this is an example of local in the extreme! Imagine being able to grow your own clothing! Below is her introduction to the proje

Decision making for the Circular Economy: Life Cycle Assessment

Feb 12, 2018

Decision making for the Circular Economy: Life Cycle Assessment

Post by Shauhrat Chopra (Assistant Professor, City University of Hong Kong, formerly a Post-Doctoral Researcher at University of Illinois Chicago) and Weslynne Ashton (Associate Professor, Illinois Institute of Technology Stuart School of Business). Here, Shauhrat and Weslynne present a Life-Cycle Assessments of bread baking, considering wood versus Plant Chicago biobricks as fuel. In a facility-scale industrial symbiosis system like The Plant, the ideal is for one business t

Thinking Circular, with Chemistry

Jan 18, 2018

Thinking Circular, with Chemistry

Post by John Mulrow, Civil Engineering PhD Candidate at University of Illinois at Chicago. This post describes a chemistry example I use to explain the fundamentals of material and energy flow for sustainability courses at UIC. A primary task of circular economists is the tracking of material and energy use throughout the production process. One of the simplest ways of doing this is to turn our analysis into a chemical equation. Burning wood to heat the bread oven at Pleasant

Measuring Food, Energy and Water Flows at The Plant

Oct 26, 2017

Measuring Food, Energy and Water Flows at The Plant

Article by Eva Chancé, French National Institute for Agricultural Research (INRA) (This research was led by Eva in partnership with Plant Chicago and Research Steering Committee members from Illinois Institute of Technology and University of Illinois Chicago) In this paper entitled “The Plant – an experiment in urban food sustainability” and published recently in the journal Environmental Progress & Sustainable Energy, we present the concept of urban food production and oppor

How to Transition Chicago to a Circular Economy

Aug 24, 2017

How to Transition Chicago to a Circular Economy

Article by Jaycie Weathers and Dr. Nancy E. Landrum, at Loyola University Chicago, summarizing circular economy research, conducted in partnership with Plant Chicago. — This research project reviewed the current state of nations, states, municipalities, and organizations in their transition toward a circular economy. Through this review, we identified the top four approaches used around the world to transition toward a circular economy model: (1) stricter regulations on was