The Digest’s Top 10 Innovations for the week of June 28th, 2018

#5 That’s the pits: Mexican company makes straws from avocado seeds

In Mexico, Biofase is making straws out of avocado pits—a concept poised to gain ground as plastic straw bans proliferate globally. Based in Michoacán, Biofase was launched in 2012 and uses 15 metric tons of avocado seeds a day for its bioplastics.

Chemical engineer and founder Scott Mungía says he also considered mango and mamey sapote seeds for his bioplastics content, but settled on avocados because of its favorable properties. He originally began producing bioplastic cutlery, but moved to straws earlier this year.

Most of the company’s production is exported to the United States, Canada, Costa Rica, Colombia and Perú.