@vascoamaralgrilo

Hello Vasco,

Great questions. I'll try and answer them as fully as I can. If you need further detail please follow-up.

How would the fibre produced by the machine by useful. The material would be used directly in the agricultural sector as a twine. String is an essential component of farming and globally we use 2.5 million tonnes of plastic based agri twine/string.

This picture of a zuccini farm in Peru shows how much fibre is used in tying up plants: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1O7EUL2Y4eMnVlXSclUTseYqms_Awr8aG/view?usp=drive_link

Our cost model - assuming co-location with a nut oil or soy processing plant - indicates that fibre of sufficient quality could be produced in the $2.4-$3.5/kg range. This would make it cost competitive with imported HDPE, PA6 or PP products.

We forecast that for every $1000 spend on development and deployment, this solution would return ~$1400 per year in revenue. Given the 10year+ life of this equipment this would enable a significant long term benefit to the users with further upsides in skills, training, ecology and income diversification. In our view this initiative will deliver more for the communities over the medium (2yr) and long term (5yr+) horizons.

Is there a lack of high quality lit reviews on microplastics?

From my experience there is an awareness around microplastics and the scale of the problem.

It is a lack of alternatives to PET/PP/PA that seems to be the limiting factor.

What progress have you made since your last update?

We deployed our prototype to the Peruvian Amazon - testing our biodegradable fibres in commercial courgette and vegetable growers.

Machinery to produce our prototype at pilot scale has been assembled and is on the boat to fit into our prototyping suite.

We published our BioBind report and our Theory of Change. Working with experts in this space we forecast that each BioBind unit could bring $193,000 in revenue for the producer/operator, saving 90t of plastic each year.

What are your next steps?

1. Proving out the technology to TRL8/TRL9 to reduce the risk of regional adoption

2. Finding our first producer partner to adapt this at scale in the region.

Is there anything others could help you with?

We are looking for connections and warm intros to impact investors interested in this space. If you know anyone who wants to invest

This seems like straightforward research proposal in a hot topic that could probably attract all sorts of public funding. Can you elaborate why EA is the best way to fund this?

Hi Matt - I'd like to see this implemented. Best of luck.

This proposal is a bit light on detail - I think with more understanding of the project you will find more will donate.

$10 donated. Hopefully it can attract more.

interesting. Could be relevant for our BioBind project which will try and drop new plug and play capabilities in the Amazon. We have issues getting the right data on where we can optimise for impact. A lot of the producer level data around Brazil nuts is poor and any model needs to consider different qualities of input.

This is a huge project. Just to clarify, the funding requested is $750k, but in the body text it mentions $525k. Maybe one needs fixing.

Happy to seed this project and try and help Matthew reach his minimum funding.

This project aligns with overall aims of EA. By donating I can potentially seed further interest from the community.

Donated. No doubt you can leverage and multiply it through your platform.

@liconstan I see that now. Good work. I'm sure someone will carry the baton

Detailed proposal. Looking forward to seeing the outcomes.

Do you think you could replicate in the UK?

Hello, I’m considering donating. What activities would this fundraise directly support? The bit on use of funds is a bit vague.

Interested to donate. Can you elaborate on success rates and outcomes from previous pitch sessions?

Thanks for the feedback @Austin

I'll see if I can change it from EA community through the edit function.

@aaron Never too late to add technical skills. If you have an idea the tools are often available to make it happen.

I’m glad to see this reach the threshold.

@camrobjones where will be best to monitor progress and see results?

Steve, I like the idea. It was mechanical machinery that got me interested in my area of expertise. My question is how does a physical library inspire a sufficient number of “STEM convertible” students? How would we measure the near term and impact and long term societal gain?

I think many would agree that sci publishing is broken. What would be the milestones after 1 year? How do we measure success?