An entirely new and unique patented solution to the problem of plastic pollution
Teysha’s sustainably sourced, second-generation biopolymers replace traditional, environmentally damaging, petrochemical plastics over a wide range of applications.
About Teysha
After over a decade of R&D, Teysha Technologies have developed a patented technology where modified natural monomers, co-monomers and additives can combine to produce versatile, tunable materials comparable to traditional plastic over a wide range of applications, but with none of the environmental impacts. Our technology platform uses various natural components, so the strength, thermal stability and degradation rates can all be controlled according to end-use requirements.
Introduction
The rapidly increasing production of disposable plastic products is overwhelming the world’s ability to deal with them. Plastics made from fossil fuels are just over a century old. Production and development of thousands of new plastic products accelerated after World War II, so transforming the modern age that life without plastics would be unrecognisable today. Plastics revolutionised medicine with life-saving devices, made space travel possible, lightened cars and jets – saving fuel and pollution – and saved lives with helmets, incubators, and equipment for clean drinking water. The conveniences plastics offer, however, led to a throw-away culture that reveals the material’s dark side: today, single use plastics account for 40 percent of the plastic produced every year. Many of these products, such as plastic bags and food packaging, have a lifespan of mere minutes to hours, yet they may persist in the environment for hundreds of years.
The Teysha team has invented a unique IP platform developing a product and company that has an entirely new and unique solution to plastic pollution. Our AggiePol® technology stands alone as a renewable and fully biodegradable earth-friendly plastic substitute that can be tuned to hundreds of short and long-term applications, at a competitive price point.
Technology
One significant strength of the technology is its inherent versatility as it is truly more of a platform than a single polymer system. It can be thought of as a “plug-and-play” system where various modified natural product monomers and various thiol co-monomers can be used. In addition to the co-monomers, various solvents and additives can be used to modify the properties of the final polymer network. This allows for the formation of a variety of final products that can vary from hard and stiff materials to soft, which can be directly applied to current plant machinery with low capital cost.
Applications
Teysha’s natural product polycarbonate platform creates a wide range of polymers with tunable properties and practical applications to meet the growing demand for sustainable plastics. The platform invention provides the design of synthetic strategies for the development of polymer materials that originate from renewable resources, exhibit novel combinations of strength and toughness, as well as undergo hydrolytic breakdown to biologically beneficial by-products.
Plastic waste is one of the great environmental scourges of our time. In the UK alone, the amount of single-use plastic wasted every year would fill 1,000 Royal Albert Halls.
The Environment Secretary has today confirmed a ban on plastic straws, drinks stirrers, and plastic stemmed cotton buds in England, following overwhelming public support for the move.
These new rules send a clear message that in the EU we are taking responsibility for the waste we generate… This is an important milestone in fighting plastic pollution, transitioning to a circular economy, and achieving the aims of the European Green Deal.
We should not be allowing plastic. What we should do is phase it out.
If we continue like this, by 2050, we will have more plastic in the ocean than fish.
It is by working with these companies, with policy makers, with cities, with innovation to design bio-benign products – that we will tackle this. There isn’t a company out there which wants to see its logo in the ocean or in a river
Around 99% of the feedstock for plastics is fossil fuels, so we are looking at the same companies, like Exxon and Shell, that have helped create the climate crisis. There is a deep and pervasive relationship between oil and gas companies and plastics.