Researchers develop biodegradable, plant-based packaging from natural fibers – new research

From beetles to sustainable packaging – one failure in the lab led to a new line of promising research.

By: J. Carson Meredith, Georgia Institute of Technology, The Conversation

Outlets: The Conversation

Published: March 17, 2026

Words: 1,121

Last Updated: 4 months, 2 weeks ago

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By J. Carson Meredith, Georgia Institute of Technology

Jie Wu, an engineering graduate student, was studying a type of striking white beetle found in Southeast Asia and attempting to figure out how to mimic its brilliant color when an unexpected discovery upended the experiment.

Jie and I had been hoping to identify naturally occurring whitening pigments that could be used in paper and paints. The beetle’s white exoskeleton is made from a compound called …

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