Mi Terro

Mi Terro is the world's first advanced material company that creates home compostable, single-use plastic-alternative packaging materials made from plant-based agricultural waste – this is a first-of-its-kind approach.

We are not turning agricultural waste into beverage or snack like other companies. Instead, we are giving plant-based agricultural waste a new life by repurposing it to replace single-use plastic and paper-based materials and giving additional incomes to farmers all around the world.

Our technology can potentially apply to any type of agricultural waste, including plant, dairy, and vitamin supplement byproducts. Given the virtually unlimited supply, we will potentially replace all of the single-use plastic packaging materials. While bio-based, Mi Terro materials do not compete with food production, thereby preventing land-use-change. In contrast to conventional (bio)plastics, we do not need any harmful additives, solvents or chemicals and have up to 90% lower CO2 emissions.

The increasing amount of synthetic plastic waste is a huge problem that could potentially be solved with bioplastics. Despite increasing efforts to recycle, approximately 53% of waste in the US is still sent to landfill and plastic waste makes up about 19% of that. While evidence suggests that people are becoming more aware of the damage that plastic waste can cause to the environment, it is still extremely prevalent in daily lives, from packaging to clothing.

The plastic used for food and beverage packaging makes up two-thirds of the world’s plastic waste. Rigid food plastic packaging is partly recyclable. However, flexible packaging is a growing segment of the world’s packaging market. The world produces 78 million tons of flexible plastic packaging film every year.

Even though the volume of flexible packaging is smaller by weight and space, most flexible packaging cannot be practically recycled. Flexible packaging isn’t made of pure plastic polymers but rather made by blending several materials. These blended materials make flexible packaging complicated for separation and recycling.

Unlike current alternatives to microplastics, which are based on plant polysaccharides, such as cellulose and algae, Mi Terro’s plant protein materials do not rely on chemical cross-linking for their performance. This enables them to decompose quickly and completely in the natural environment. Our proprietary technology re-engineers agricultural waste into plastic-alternative packaging material. Our packaging film is 3-4 times cheaper than other bio-based materials (PLA, PHA, PBAT), is at a similar price as LDPE film, home compostable, ocean degradable, heat sealable, excellent water and oxygen barrier, low thickness, and potentially edible. In addition, our technology can be used for both flexible and rigid packaging, sourcing from the same raw material.

Our material accommodates a diverse range of fully compostable packaging applications for fresh produce, dry food, fashion, cleaning product, technological devices, and standard product packaging. 

Already competitive in quality to conventional plastics and bioplastics, on industrial production scale the materials will also be price competitive to conventional plastics, therefore making Mi Terro a solution for people all over the world, in all demographics and income levels.

We are working with beer manufactures and barley growers to upcycle their agricultural waste. Not only do we reduce their waste disposal cost but also provide them with a new stream of income/revenue for their waste. 

We work closely with beer manufacturers and farmers to understand how we can provide a higher value of their agricultural waste.

Already competitive in quality to conventional plastics and bioplastics, on industrial production scale the materials will also be price competitive to conventional plastics, therefore making Mi Terro a solution for people all over the world, in all demographics and income levels.

We’re looking for approaches that are not just as good as the plastics we aim to replace, we must be better to create a compelling reason for customers to adopt the solution.

We have successfully developed several prototypes of our flexible packaging film and rigid packaging. We will provide the final MVP by Q3 of 2021. After. we will launch a pilot with Budweiser in China, which will most likely be in the Fujian Province.

With this pilot plant, we plan to manufacture 800 tons of film per year. We will hire 15 workers from underserved communities. 

Our business model is B2B2C. In stage 1, we sell the final products (packaging film and fiber). In stage 2, we sell the protein powder extracted from agricultural waste to food and beverage companies (plant-based meat), fertilizer, and animal feed. In stage 3, we will license our technology.

Unlike current alternatives to microplastics, which are based on plant polysaccharides, such as cellulose and algae, Mi Terro’s plant protein materials do not rely on chemical cross-linking for their performance. This enables them to decompose quickly and completely in the natural environment. Our proprietary technology re-engineers agricultural waste into plastic-alternative packaging material. Our packaging film is 20-40% cheaper than other bio-based materials (PLA, PHA, PBAT), home compostable, ocean degradable, heat sealable, excellent water and oxygen barrier, low thickness, and potentially edible. In addition, our technology can be used for both flexible and rigid packaging, sourcing from the same raw material.

Our technology can potentially apply to any type of agricultural waste, including plant, dairy, and vitamin supplement byproducts. Given the virtually unlimited supply, we will potentially replace all of the single-use plastic packaging materials. While bio-based, Mi Terro materials do not compete with food production, thereby preventing land-use change. In contrast to conventional (bio)plastics, we do not need any harmful additives, solvents or chemicals and have up to 90% lower CO2 emissions.

We currently haven't provided the materials yet. We plan to serve 800 tons of films per year starting 2022. We will provide 20 additional jobs. Our materials will serve more than 4000 people.

In the next 10 years, we plan to upcycle 2,700,000 tons of spent grain. Since 1kg of food waste equals 2.5 kg of CO2 equivalent, we will reduce 7,500,000 tons of CO2. In addition, we plan to replace 100,000 tons of LDPE and 430,000 tons of HDPE. Since HDPE’s carbon footprint is 1.60 Kg CO2 per kg and LDPE’s carbon footprint is 6 kg CO2 per kg, we will reduce an additional 1,288,000 tons of CO2. In total, we will reduce 8,788,000 tons of CO2 in the next 10 years.

5 people, 4 full-time and 1 part-time.

Robert, the Co-founder and CEO, is a 3x entrepreneur. He has many years of experience in marketing and sales. He is a Forbes Under 30 Scholar, Global Shaker's Sustainable Fashion Innovator 2019, an Entrepreneur Hall of Fame at the USC Marshall School of Business, a GreenBiz "30 Under 30" honoree, and a SOCAP - Social Capital Markets 2020 Game-Changing Founders of Color, and Top 100 Asian American Emerging Leaders by theboadiQ. He owns 2 patents.

Our Chief Scientist Officer and Co-founder Professor Shengfu Chen of Zhejiang University has 30 years of experience in protein polymer and chemical engineering. He was also a lecturer at the University of Washington. He holds 10 patents. He is mainly engaged in polymer materials scientific research, especially based on marine anti-fouling materials, membrane separation technology, and other fields. To date, he has published more than 100 high-quality papers in major international SCI journals. His work has been cited more than 12,000 times by SCI.

Baron Ho is our Innovation Director. He is currently receiving his Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of Oxford.

Zoe Chen is our R&D Director. She has 8 years of experience in material science and analytical chemistry. She has a Master’s Degree in Analytic Chemistry from Hong Kong Baptist University.

JT Long is our Marketing Director. He holds an MBA from Harvard University. He has 5 years of advanced material sales and marketing experience.

We are the perfect team to deliver the result. We have a team of serial entrepreneurs, Ph.D. material scientists, chemists, and marketing experts. Our team is made up of experienced scholars from Harvard University, University of Oxford, USC, Kansas State University, University of Washington, and Hong Kong Baptist University. We have a combined of 40 years of industrial experience. The team members have a collective of 12 patints.

We don't ever judge people based on their race or gender. We recruit the best talents from any background. 

We need to the world's to work together with us.

Our mission is to bring commercial products to scale that can make an impact on the environment.

We’re looking for approaches that are not just as good as the plastics we aim to replace, we must be better to create a compelling reason for customers to adopt the solution. We cannot rely purely on making a sustainability-led choice.

Beer companies, food companies, and plastic packaging manufacturers. 

Our R&D Director Zoe has a Master's Degree from HK Baptist University. We respect and encourage more female colleagues to join our team.