It’s rare that we contemplate where all the plastic we throw out goes, but rest assured that nearly none of it is being recycled. Simply put, it’s usually cheaper to make new plastic than to recycle old plastic, even the plastic you put in the recycling bin. Because it takes plastic centuries to break down, this means for each one of us you could build a mountain of plastic from all the packaging we use over the course of our lives. 

But what if plastic didn’t have to take centuries to break down, and could actually biodegrade in a matter of days or weeks? 

That’s exactly the vision Luna Yu is bringing to life as founder and CEO of Genecis Bioindustries, a biotech company using fermentation to transform food waste into high-performance, truly compostable bioplastics. In this episode, Luna joins us—at 1 a.m. her time from a manufacturing run in China—to share the story behind Genecis, from her early days as a teenage entrepreneur in Canada to raising $17 million for her startup in the climate tech world.

Luna walks us through how Genecis engineers microbes to turn low-cost industrial waste streams like glycerol into PHA, a biodegradable plastic alternative that’s already being used in consumer products like Mad Tea and Mad Coffee. We discuss why Genecis is taking a direct-to-consumer approach, how they’re preparing to launch in Sprouts nationwide, and what it will take to make sustainable plastics cost-competitive with petroleum-based ones.

We also dive into Luna’s big bets on the future—including cell-free biology, the promise of enzyme-only production systems, and her vision for a world where the most convenient option is also the most sustainable.

If you’re curious about the intersection of synthetic biology, circular economy, and product design—or you just want to hear from someone reshaping the future of plastic—this episode is for you.

Discussed in this episode

• You can learn more about Genecis' technology by reading their patents and patent applications here.

• Luna is very inspired by Isomorphic Labs.

• Genecis is backed by Amazon and is a graduate of the Y Combinator accelerator.

• CJ Biomaterials manufactures PHA via fermentation. 

• Plastic has only been around since the 1950s but we believe it lasts for centuries. How do we know? Researchers simulate environmental exposure in labs by increasing UV radiation, temperature, moisture, and mechanical stress to accelerate plastic breakdown. They analyze how the polymer chains degrade and extrapolate those results to estimate natural-world decay timelines.

Get to Know Luna Yu

Luna Yu is the CEO of Genecis Bioindustries. She completed her Bachelors and Masters in Environmental Science at the age of 21 at the University of Toronto. During her Undergrad, Luna co-founded, grew and exited from two profitable software startups. The exciting advancements in fields of synthetic biology, bioinformatics, and machine learning led her to infuse her passion and experience together. This created Genecis, where biotechnology enables the conversion of food waste into high value materials.