The process does not involve eating plastic directly. Instead, researchers chemically break down PET, the material commonly used in water and soda bottles, as well as agricultural waste such as corn stalks and leaves. Engineered microbes then convert the resulting compounds into proteins, fats and other nutrients before the material is shaped into cookies using a 3D food printer.

From Plastic Bottle to Cookie

The technology begins with a chemical treatment that uses water and oxygen under extreme heat and pressure to break down tough plastic and plant biomass into smaller compounds. Specialized microorganisms can then consume these breakdown products and convert them into nutrient-rich biomass.

The research team, led by microbiologist Dr Lahiru Jayakody, uses programmed yeast strains to produce proteins, fats and acids. Another engineered yeast produces vanilla flavoring from plant biomass, while a separate strain converts ethylene glycol, a compound associated with PET plastic, into beta-carotene, which the human body can convert into vitamin A.

Why NASA Is Interested

The project has a practical problem in mind: feeding astronauts during future long-duration missions.

• Carrying every kilogram of food from Earth becomes increasingly difficult as missions become longer and travel farther into space.
• A system capable of turning waste materials into useful nutrients could potentially reduce the amount of raw material that needs to be transported.

The same concept could have applications on Earth.

• Plastic waste is difficult to manage at the scale it is produced, while agricultural residues are often discarded or underused.
• Converting both into useful biomass could create another pathway for recovering value from waste.

Jayakody summarized the underlying idea simply: plastic and food both contain carbon, creating an opportunity to explore whether one could be transformed into the other through biotechnology.

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The Cookies Have Not Been Eaten Yet

Despite the unusual ingredients, the µBites have not yet undergone formal human taste testing. The researchers are still waiting for institutional approval before people can consume the cookies as part of a controlled evaluation.

The team says preliminary smell testing produced encouraging results, with most participants indicating they would be willing to eat the cookies in a resource-limited environment. The researchers have also reported that safety testing has cleared the prototype for consumption, although formal human testing remains pending.

The cookies are scheduled for presentation as part of the research team’s work at the American Chemical Society meeting in Chicago.

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Could Waste Become a Future Food Resource?

The project remains an experimental demonstration rather than a product ready for supermarkets. Its significance lies in showing how biological engineering, waste recycling and 3D food printing can be combined in one system.

The researchers envision a future where discarded materials could become feedstock for engineered microorganisms, which would then produce useful nutrients and ingredients.

To convert plastic waste into edible protein-rich cookies, the next major step is proving that the resulting food is not only safe but also nutritionally useful, acceptable in taste, and practical to produce at scale. If those challenges can be overcome, the technology could offer an unusual new approach to both waste management and food production on Earth and potentially far beyond it.

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