Mestic Manure-derived bioplastic

“Mestic® is all about transforming raw matter into future oppertunities”

A WORK ABOUT OVERRIDING OUR NATURAL AVERSION TO WASTE, MANURE MATTERS

In nature nothing is considered waste. Yet manure, in its essence, is easily considered the most vile substance we know. ‘Mestic’ shows that even this most disgusting matter is inherently beautiful.

Mestic® generates new sustainable raw materials (bioplastics) that can be used by the manufacturing industry, thereby spurring the settlement of new industry and the development of new innovative technologies in the future.

Manure contains phosphate and nitrogen which are beneficial for the agriculture if they are used in the proper ratio. Unfortunately, the sector produces a surplus of manure and this results in too much phosphate and nitrogen. Too much of those is harmful to the soil, water and air.

This sector needs to adhere to the strict (inter)national policies and regulations regarding to nitrate and phosphate. This causes friction between the agricultural sector and the government; the government has to apply the regulations mandated by (inter)national policies, whilst the industry loses their investments and room to grow.

The scope of this problem becomes clear in January 2016. A recent press report from Statistics Netherlands (CBS) shows that the Dutch livestock industry has exceeded the phosphate ceiling 2015 with 4.6 million kg. A total of 172,9 million kg of phosphate has been produced from livestock manure, where 99,7 million kg originates from cow manure.

On 3 March 2016 there was another press release from the Dutch Secretary of State van Dam. He stated that the phosphate production from dairy livestock needs to be reduced by 4% to 8% in order to meet the (inter)national policies.

The long-term consequences are a reduction in cows and a weakened economic position of the Dutch dairy industry. The Dutch government tries to elevate this issue with phosphate laws, but that does not solve the core of the problem.

Articles/interviews [outdated]

E52, EHV365. (2016, June). Interview at BioArt Lab Eindhoven, Youtube.

Brouwers, B. (2016, June). From cow dung to Mestic: Jalila Essaïdi’s manure project, Mestic Presskit, http://mestic.eu/.

Scholtes, P. (2016, June). Een jurk gemaakt uit koeienpoep, de ondernemer.nl,

Boerman, P. (2016, June). De oplossing voor het mestprobleem: maak er kleding en papier van!, Management Team,