By Chisato Tanaka

The Associated Press

TOKYO – Ever dream of having a gingerbread house like Hansel and Gretel?

In the near future, edible houses may no longer be found only in fairy tales.

Tokyo University researchers Kota Machida and Yuya Sakai have developed a technology to transform food waste into potentially edible “cement” for construction use.

It’s the world’s first process for making cement entirely from food waste. The researchers say the tensile, or bending, strength of their product is nearly quadruple that of ordinary concrete.

Machida and Sakai say they hope to help combat climate change, alleviating problems related to leftover food materials that emit methane when they rot while buried in landfills.

Sakai, an associate professor of industrial science, developed the technology while researching sustainable materials possibly able to replace cement-based concrete. Cement production accounts for 8 percent of the world’s carbon dioxide emissions, according to the Chatham House think tank.

He first developed a way to make concrete by subjecting pulverized wood particles to heat compression. The three-step process of drying, pulverization, and compression was done using simple mixers and compressors the researchers say can be bought on Amazon.

Sakai, with his student Machida, decided to do the same thing with food waste. Previous trials using food waste to make cement required plastics to be mixed in to get the materials to stick together.

After failing in attempts to eliminate use of plastics, they realized they could get the cement to bind by adjusting the temperature and pressure used.

“The most challenging part was that each type of food waste requires different temperatures and pressure levels,” Sakai said.

Other experiments involving food waste for construction have mainly focused on use of stuff such as coffee grounds or biowaste ashes as filler in regular concrete.

Sakai and Machida say they have successfully made cement using tea leaves, orange and onion peels, coffee grounds, Chinese cabbage, and even lunch-box leftovers.

They’ve adjusted flavors with different spices and found the colors, scent and taste of the cement can be quite appealing. To be able to eat the material, a person would need to break it into pieces and boil it, Sakai said.

To make the cement waterproof and protect it from being eaten by rodents and other pests, it might be coated with Japanese lacquer.

Food waste is a huge problem in Japan and worldwide. Japan produced around 5.7 million tons of edible food waste in 2019 and the government aims to reduce that to around 2.7 million tons by 2030.

Machida started a company called Fabula Inc. last year with two of his childhood friends. They are working with other companies to make cups, cutlery, and furniture out of food cement.

The process could be used to make edible makeshift housing for disasters, Sakai said.

“For example, if food cannot be delivered to evacuees, they could eat makeshift beds made out of food cement,” he said.

The food cement can be reused and is biodegradable, so it can be buried when it is no longer needed.

“Our ultimate hope is that this cement replaces plastic and cement products, which have worse environmental impacts,” Machida said.

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By CANDICE CHOI and KELVIN CHAN
Associated Press

BEIJING (AP) — To stage the Winter Games in the Chinese capital, organizers embarked on a massive public works campaign, constructing new venues and piping millions of gallons of water up into the arid surrounding mountains to create fake snow for ski competitions.

And then they proclaimed these to be the most sustainable Olympics in history.

How can both these things be true?

The seeming contradiction shows the difficulties of sorting spin from genuine achievements as countries and companies seek to burnish their environmental credentials.

Even as organizations make notable progress on reducing the harmful effects of their operations, experts say sustainability claims can be overstated and mask underlying problems. In China, verifying claims can be especially difficult because of the lack of transparency.

A look at what sustainability claims can and can’t tell us.

HOW IS SUSTAINABILITY MEASURED?

Sustainability is a broad term generally referring to environmental, economic and social effects. But experts say a lack of clear, consistent measures can make it hard to know whether to trust claims around the term.

In the early 2000s, the International Olympic Committee sought to create a comprehensive evaluation to help track how organizers were progressing on sustainability goals, according to a study published last year. But the effort was eventually abandoned by host cities, in part because collecting all the necessary information was too cumbersome, the report noted.

The researchers sought to create their own method for rating the sustainability of the Games using publicly available information. Comparisons were difficult because of the lack of consistent data, but they found that sustainability actually declined with recent Olympics due to factors including the growth of the event. The 2022 Beijing Games were not included in the study.

WHAT ABOUT CARBON FOOTPRINT?

As organizations face pressure to cut back on the emissions that contribute to global warming, one measure of sustainability getting more attention is carbon footprints.

The IOC, for example, says the Beijing Olympics will be carbon neutral and that future games will be carbon positive. That might seem to defy logic when considering the massive scale of the events. But groups can claim carbon neutrality by paying to offset the emissions they create, often with the planting of trees.

Experts say offsets can be problematic because there’s no guarantee they’ll deliver on reducing emissions. Trees might be wiped out by wildfire or extreme weather.

“Forestation projects literally go up in smoke,” said Daniel Scott, a climate researcher at the University of Waterloo.

Many organizations are making meaningful changes to reduce their footprints. But the simplicity of carbon neutrality claims can make it hard to know what they really signify, said Harry Fearnehough, a policy analyst at NewClimate Institute, which works to fight global warming.

“It’s almost impossible for for consumers — but also for regulators, shareholders, investors — to digest this easily,” he said, adding that government guidelines could give people guidance.

WHAT IS BEIJING DOING?

Beijing organizers note the many measures they’ve taken to reduce the impact of the Games. Several arenas from the city’s 2008 Summer Games are being reused for this month’s competitions, and venues are being powered by renewable energy. Most the vehicles shuttling participants between sites will also be fuel-efficient.

But to achieve carbon neutrality, organizers are still relying on carbon offsets.

Marie Sallois, director of sustainability at the IOC, noted the difficulties of reducing emissions and that organizers are working to keep improving.

WHAT ABOUT OTHER IMPACTS?

The focus on carbon footprints in recent years could obscure other environmental and social issues, such as the use of natural resources and displacement of local residents for construction.

“We can get carbon blinders,” said Rob Jackson, a climate researcher at Stanford University.

In a sustainability report last month, Beijing organizers addressed some of the Games’ other impacts To build the ski jump venue and the Olympic Village in Hebei province, for example, they said about 1,500 villagers who had to be relocated were given the choice of new apartments or cash.

To ensure the production of fake snow wouldn’t stress water regional water supplies, the report cited measures including the recycling of wastewater and the use of reservoirs to collect rain and snowmelt. This week, organizers also noted that fake snow has become common at ski resorts.

It’s a practice experts say could become more common as climate change endangers winter sports.
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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

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