TOKYO (AP) – Ever dreamed of having a gingerbread house like Hansel and Gretel?
In the near future, edible houses may no longer just be found in fairy tales.
Tokyo University researchers Kota Machida and Yuya Sakai have developed a technology to transform food waste into potentially edible “cement” for construction use.
It’s the world’s first process for making cement entirely from food waste. The researchers say the tensile, or bending, strength of their product is nearly quadruple that of ordinary concrete.
Machida and Sakai say they hope to help reduce global warming, alleviating problems related to wasted food materials that emit methane when they rot while buried in landfills.