Scientists Just Made A Cookie Out of Recycled Plastic 'Slurry'. Welcome to 2026 - ScienceAlert
Researchers at Southern Illinois University have developed 'µBites,' cookies created from processed plastic waste. The project, part of NASA's Deep Space Food Challenge, aims to provide sustainable food solutions for extreme environments like space or disaster zones.
Why it matters
This innovation addresses both plastic waste management and the critical need for sustainable food production in resource-constrained environments.
Add ScienceAlert on Google A µBites cookie, which is technically food. (SIU Carbondale Communications) Would you eat a cookie that was made from plastic?
Technically, we're all ingesting an ungodly amount of plastic already, in the form of micro- and nanoscopic particles in our food .
But now, researchers from Southern Illinois University (SIU) Carbondale are trying to get us to eat the stuff on purpose.
It takes the form of cookies they call µBites, which, if you know your scientific notation symbols, is pronounced "microbites".
They may sound even less appetizing than all the bugs we might have to eat in the future, but these cookies have undergone a whole lot of processing to make them (theoretically) safe to eat, nutritious, and hopefully tasty.
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