Okosix will show its biodegradable plastic at TechCrunch Disrupt 2025

Healthcare is awash successful single-use plastics. In U.S. healthcare facilities alone, more than 2,800 tons of integrative packaging and products are thrown retired each day. 

Few radical are much alert of this than Eddie Yu. Early successful the pandemic, Yu founded a institution that made disposable masks. One day, his niece was with him portion helium was sorting recycling, and she asked him whether his disguise was besides recyclable.

“I told her that really we can’t recycle the mask,” helium told TechCrunch. “She conscionable interrupted maine and said, ‘Oh, past you marque a batch of trash each day.’”

The small girl’s words stuck with Yu, and aft selling the disguise institution successful 2021, helium acceptable retired to marque amends.

In an effort to tame healthcare’s azygous usage integrative problem, Yu’s caller company, Okosix, has developed a caller bio-based, biodegradable polymer. Okosix is portion of Startup Battlefield, and it volition beryllium presenting astatine TechCrunch Disrupt aboriginal this period successful San Francisco. 

Okosix blends assorted compounds including cellulose, chitosan derived from crustacean shells, wax, and a proprietary material. The effect is cheaper than polylactic acerb (PLA), a wide utilized biodegradable plastic, with functionality that is “the aforesaid oregon adjacent amended than PLA,” Yu said.

Among plastics, the word “biodegradability” is often misused, Yu said. Some necessitate precise circumstantial conditions to decompose, portion others simply autumn isolated into micro- oregon nanoplastics. 

“We’ve got planetary certifications to beryllium that the worldly is wholly gone successful six months,” Yu said. 

Okosix is starting with look masks, but it plans to besides marque surgical gowns, diapers, and sanitary napkins, Yu said. “We privation to usage a harmless material, non-plastic, to regenerate fossil plastics for disposable products.”

Though the institution has yet to execute a ceremonial lifecycle analysis, Yu said that Okosix’s worldly should person a c footprint that’s 90% little than that of polypropylene, a widely-used single-use plastic.

Okosix sells its worldly to 3rd parties, which past crook it into assorted products. “At the moment, our concern exemplary is similar Gore-tex,” Yu said. “We don’t marque the finished products, but we marque the layer, we marque the earthy materials, and past we enactment with companies similar 3M.” He added that branding could go a important portion of the business, akin to Gore-tex.

The startup has raised $2.3 million, including investments from the founders and different angel investors.

Hear much from Okosix and dozens of different startups firsthand, enactment successful invaluable workshops, and marque lasting connections astatine this year’s Disrupt, taking spot October 27 to 29 successful San Francisco.