As kimchi has been drawing attention as a global healthy food trend, cabbage is one of the representative vegetables used as a main ingredient for manufacturing kimchi overseas.
The annual global production of cabbage and other Brassica crops is reported to be 72 million tons, and more than 30% of them are estimated to be discarded during the manufacturing and distribution processes, causing environmental pollution as well as considerable waste disposal costs in the industry.
In connection with this problem, Hae Choon Chang, President of the World Institute of Kimchi (WiKim), has announced that the institute has developed a bio-refactoring-based upcycling technology that can convert cabbage byproducts discarded as waste during the food manufacturing process into biodegradable plastics.
Bio-refactoring refers to a technology for redesigning microorganisms to give new functions other than their existing characteristics.
Read more at phys.org