Cookies Made From Plastic Bottles Could Ease Food Shortages, Feed NASA Crews In Space

BreakingBusinessCookies Made From Plastic Bottles Could Ease Food Shortages, Feed NASA Crews In SpaceByMary Whitfill Roeloffs,Forbes Staff. Mary Roeloffs is a Forbes breaking news reporter covering pop culture.Follow AuthorAug 24, 2026, 10:50am EDTToplineResearchers at Southern Illinois University have engineered microbes that can break down discarded plastic bottles and crop waste and turn them into protein-rich cookies, a step-by-step biological transformation that could address problems with plastic pollution, a looming global food crisis and help sustain deep-space missions with humans aboard.A cookie is made using waste plant materials and plastic. SIU Carbondale CommunicationsKey FactsSouthern Illinois University Carbondale researchers have created what they call “µBites,” or protein-rich cookies with core ingredients that began as discarded PET plastic, the same material used in soda bottles, water bottles and leftover corn stalks and leaves. The work, conducted as part of a NASA-led project aimed at creating food for deep-space exploration, uses water and oxygen under extreme heat and pressure to break tough plastic and biomass into bite-sized pieces that can be processed by microbes. Programmed yeasts then reassemble those fragments into proteins, fats and acids, and a 3D printer extrudes the final mixture into cookie form.Flavor is added via baker's yeast engineered to generate vanilla flavoring directly from plant biomass and a separate yeast strain converts ethylene glycol, a molecule found in PET plastic, into beta-carotene, a precursor the body transforms into vitamin A, according to the research team.Safety testing has cleared µBites for consumption, but the team is still awaiting institutional sign-off before conducting formal taste tests. Smell tests already conducted found most participants said they would eat the cookies in a resource-limited setting, the researchers said. if (!window.cnxel) { window.cnxel = {}; window.cnxel.cmd = []; var ifr...