This Toronto 28-year-old received a chunk of Amazon's $2B fund for her tech company
Amazon invested a portion of a $2-billion climate fund earlier this month in a company created by a 28-year-old Toronto scientist who turns food scraps into alternative plastics.
Luna Yu, CEO and founder of Genecis, says she dove into the bioplastics world at 22-years-old. At the time, her budget was dismal and approach was scrappy – but creative, as she put it.
“We went out to Canadian Tire and bought a couple of rice cookers, and then we actually retrofitted the rice cookers and made them into bioreactors ourselves,” Yu told CTV News Toronto.
The makeshift gadget she created as a fresh University of Toronto graduate emulated the aim of her company-to-be, Genecis.
“It’s super simple. It's almost like brewing beer, right? All you have to do is to actually feed food waste as a sort of energy source or food to bacteria,” Yu explained.
That bacteria consumes sugars and fatty acids from the organic waste. As it metabolizes, the bacteria converts food scraps into a biodegradable called Polyhydroxyalkanoate, or simpler, PHA.
A reactor growing PHA is photographed at the Genecis lab (Supplied). From there, PHA is extracted, purified and compounded into pellets, which are injected into molding machines to make an alternative to single-use plastics, like food and medical packaging.
“One product that we sort of experimented with launching ourselves last year is in a textile market,” Yu said. Instead of making polyester shirts out of traditional synthetic plastics, Yu uses PHA as a replacement.
With a chunk of Amazon’s $2 billion Climate Pledge Fund secured, Yu is aiming to integrate her sustainable, biodegradable alternative to plastic into Amazon’s supply chain.
Genecis employees working at the office lab (Supplied). She could not disclose the amount of money received. An Amazon spokesperson told CTV News Toronto the investment in Genecis came from the fund’s $50 million Female Founder Initiative, but could only confirm these investments range from hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars.
“That's going to be able to help us altogether amplify our overall impact, right? Because our goal in the next 10 years is to essentially make PHAs as ubiquitous as possible,” Yu said.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Indian envoy warns of 'big red line,' days after charges laid in Nijjar case
India's envoy to Canada insists relations between the two countries are positive overall, despite what he describes as 'a lot of noise.'
Stormy Daniels describes meeting Trump during occasionally graphic testimony in hush money trial
With Donald Trump sitting just feet away, Stormy Daniels testified Tuesday at the former president's hush money trial about a sexual encounter the porn actor says they had in 2006 that resulted in her being paid to keep silent during the presidential race 10 years later.
U.S. paused bomb shipment to Israel to signal concerns over Rafah invasion, official says
The U.S. paused a shipment of bombs to Israel last week over concerns that Israel was approaching a decision on launching a full-scale assault on the southern Gaza city of Rafah against the wishes of the U.S.
Former homicide detective explains how police will investigate shooting outside Drake's Bridle Path mansion
Footage from dozens of security cameras in the area of Drake’s Bridle Path mansion could be the key to identifying the suspect responsible for shooting and seriously injuring a security guard outside the rapper’s sprawling home early Tuesday morning, a former Toronto homicide detective says.
Northern Ont. woman makes 'eggstraordinary' find
A chicken farmer near Mattawa made an 'eggstraordinary' find Friday morning when she discovered one of her hens laid an egg close to three times the size of an average large chicken egg.
Susan Buckner, who played spirited cheerleader Patty Simcox in 'Grease,' dead at 72
Susan Buckner, best known for playing peppy Rydell High School cheerleader Patty Simcox in the 1978 classic movie musical 'Grease,' has died. She was 72.
Jeremy Skibicki has 'uphill battle' to prove he's not criminally responsible in Winnipeg killings: legal analysts
Accused killer Jeremy Skibicki could have a challenging time convincing a judge that he is not criminally responsible for the deaths of four Indigenous women, a legal analyst says.
Bye-bye bag fee: Calgary repeals single-use bylaw
A Calgary bylaw requiring businesses to charge a minimum bag fee and only provide single-use items when requested has officially been tossed.
Alcohol believed to be a factor in boating incident after 2 men die: N.S. RCMP
Two Nova Scotia men are dead after a boat they were travelling in sank in the Annapolis River in Granville Centre, N.S., on Monday.