Kevin Kumalapura enjoyed a relatively clean Bali before he departed to the US in 1998. Today, however, one of the world’s most popular travel destinations faces a huge plastic trash problem. Concerned about the condition, Kevin developed bioplastics from environmentally-friendly essences of cassava and corn and sugarcane dregs.
Kevin, 31, said people could enjoy surfing on sea waves before 1998. Now, however, people are surfing on plastic-filled seas. In the old times, he could dive and enjoy Bali’s undersea beauty. Nowadays, he dives to pick up trash.
What else can he say? This impression may be extreme, but it is real. It is this reality that drove Kevin to find a solution. He tried to create a biodegradable type of plastic, bioplastic, and opened a head office with a small laboratory in Bali.
A small bioplastic bag was torn into pieces and put into an aquarium. The pieces can be used as fish feed, because they are made of environmentally friendly essences of cassava and corn as well as sugarcane dregs.
Such is also the case with Kevin’s other inventions, namely drinking straws, coffee cups and lids, styrofoam boxes and wax paper. All of these products may look like regular plastic at first glance. However, they are all made of natural components and as such are environmentally friendly.
Kevin started the trials of his products in 2009. He did a study on the severity of plastic pollution and explored the potential to resolve the problem. Throughout the process, his educational background helped a lot.
Kevin gained a lot of knowledge through his academic career. He spent seven years studying at a medical school in the US. His bachelor’s degree in biology, with a focus on microbiology, gave him the skill to analyze the components of biomass.
According to Kevin, this science gave him the knowledge of how cellulose and amylose work. Cellulose is beneficial as a bioplastic product that can be naturally absorbed as compost when buried in the ground. Amylose changes materials to give them better characteristics than regular plastics.
For Kevin, bioplastics must be durable and eco-friendly. Durability without being eco-friendly means nothing but reproducing the plastic bags found at markets. Being eco-friendly without durability means a short product lifespan.
“The durability level of my bioplastic product is 85 percent. It can hold 4.5 kilograms of goods. Apparently, people are interested in exporting my product. Truth be told, the product is not appreciated domestically. It’s a local product, yet the locals underestimate it,” Kevin said.
Indeed, his product is not cheaper than the regular plastics on the market. This is because the organic products use ingredients from various plants. Regular plastics are made from petroleum derived from nonrenewable fossil fuel.
Borrowed time
For Kevin, everyone lives on time borrowed from their children and grandchildren. What can we all leave behind for future generations if we keep using fossil fuels?
Kevin uses the dregs of industrial grade cassava as his bioplastic raw material. The dregs are commonly used for animal feed. He also uses sugarcane dregs commonly found in sugar factory waste.
The young man calls himself a glorified waste-picker. “I take the essence of waste materials and process them into value-added products,” he said. Some of the processes take place in his own factory in Tangerang, Banten. Certain products are processed at a partner company in China. The major consideration for processing in a foreign country is production cost efficiency.
The sugarcane dregs are gathered in Indonesia and exported to China to be processed into a final product, which is then re-imported to Indonesia to be sold, especially in foreign markets. Only a handful of hotels in Indonesia are interested in using the product.
Kevin explained that the coffee cups widely used by people and even major restaurants are often deemed to be environmentally safe, but in fact they contain up to 60 percent plastic. This is different from Kevin’s bioplastic products using natural ingredients. The corn essence used in the production comes in the form of powder.
Kevin developed coffee cups and lids from corn essence. In line with the recognition from a US-based certification agency, the cups will completely decompose within 180 days. This is an added value for the environment.
Based on Kevin’s research, in Indonesia, thanks to higher temperature and higher rainfall, the product can decompose in 60 days.
