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What inspired you to mine food waste?
In 2013, I heard about a proposed calcium-carbonate mine in Asia, which would destroy a forest. I鈥檓 from Chile, where copper mines in the north show that mining causes a horrible disruption to ecosystems. I knew that calcium carbonate was abundant in eggshells, and wondered what other useful materials could be found in food waste. If we can get materials from waste instead of mines, let鈥檚 do it.

How do you exploit the waste?
People are turning to food waste as a source of energy or fuel. They burn garbage to generate energy, or use biological means such as bacteria to decompose material to make gas fuels. My work goes a step further. I鈥檓 taking by-products from those processes, such as ash, and extracting minerals to make things like glass and ceramics. We treat these by-products in exactly the same way as mined minerals 鈥� we鈥檙e simply extracting materials from food waste instead of from dirt or rocks.

How do others react to this idea?
I鈥檝e found there are two types of people. My colleagues, particularly at the Colorado School of Mines, thought I was really having problems 鈥� they didn鈥檛 understand why I was suggesting using something other than mines. It was the students who clearly saw the potential; that this was not only a cool idea, but also a great opportunity to address an area of tremendous need.

What have you achieved so far?
First I made a catalogue of mineral content for the top 50 types of food waste, such as potato skins, beer grains and nut shells. Since then, my students and I have made eight different types of glass 鈥� primarily from peanut shells, rice husks, banana peels, eggshells, and corn husks and cobs 鈥� for different applications. We鈥檝e also made glass-ceramics, and have started using distillation to extract oils from used coffee grounds.

Is there a product you are particularly pleased with?
We made glass Petri dishes tailored to the type of bacteria that another professor wants to grow. When you want to grow an organism, you need to give it nutrients. If these are already in the composition of the glass, the microorganism will feel quite comfortable. The professor said that her bacteria needed phosphorus, so we made glass from phosphorus extracted from peanuts. The bacteria grew better in our container than in regular glass.

What鈥檚 your motivation?
My primary motivation is finding out if I can do something that people claim is impossible. We鈥檙e missing opportunities because the status quo tells us it cannot be done. But people are going to find more and more value in trash: first we had recycling, then composting, and the extraction of metals and energy from waste. I want to take it one step further: total conversion of waste into something useful.

This article appeared in print under the headline 鈥淚 found glass in your food鈥�