{"id":693347,"date":"2025-10-06T19:15:13","date_gmt":"2025-10-06T16:15:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/okosix-will-show-its-biodegradable-plastic-at-techcrunch-disrupt-2025\/"},"modified":"2025-10-06T19:15:13","modified_gmt":"2025-10-06T16:15:13","slug":"okosix-will-show-its-biodegradable-plastic-at-techcrunch-disrupt-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/okosix-will-show-its-biodegradable-plastic-at-techcrunch-disrupt-2025\/","title":{"rendered":"Okosix will show its biodegradable plastic at TechCrunch Disrupt 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Healthcare is awash in single-use plastics. In U.S. healthcare facilities alone, more than 2,800 tons<\/a> of plastic packaging and products are thrown out every day.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Few people are more aware of this than Eddie Yu. Early in the pandemic, Yu founded a company that made disposable masks. One day, his niece was with him while he was sorting recycling, and she asked him whether his mask was also recyclable.<\/p>\n

\u201cI told her that actually we can\u2019t recycle the mask,\u201d he told TechCrunch. \u201cShe just interrupted me and said, \u2018Oh, then you make a lot of trash every day.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

The little girl\u2019s words stuck with Yu, and after selling the mask company in 2021, he set out to make amends.<\/p>\n

In an effort to tame healthcare\u2019s single use plastic problem, Yu\u2019s new company, Okosix, has developed a new bio-based, biodegradable polymer. Okosix is part of Startup Battlefield, and it will be presenting at TechCrunch Disrupt later this month in San Francisco.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Okosix blends various compounds including cellulose, chitosan derived from crustacean shells, wax, and a proprietary material. The result is cheaper than polylactic acid (PLA), a widely used biodegradable plastic, with functionality that is \u201cthe same or even better than PLA,\u201d Yu said.<\/p>\n

Among plastics, the term \u201cbiodegradability\u201d is often misused, Yu said. Some require very specific conditions to decompose, while others simply fall apart into micro- or nanoplastics.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n
\n

Techcrunch event<\/p>\n

\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSan Francisco<\/span>
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t|<\/span>
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tOctober 27-29, 2025<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got international certifications to prove that the material is completely gone in six months,\u201d Yu said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Okosix is starting with face masks, but it plans to also make surgical gowns, diapers, and sanitary napkins, Yu said. \u201cWe want to use a safe material, non-plastic, to replace fossil plastics for disposable products.\u201d<\/p>\n

Though the company has yet to perform a formal lifecycle analysis, Yu said that Okosix\u2019s material should have a carbon footprint that\u2019s 90% lower than that of polypropylene, a widely-used single-use plastic.<\/p>\n

Okosix sells its material to third parties, which then turn it into various products. \u201cAt the moment, our business model is like Gore-tex,\u201d Yu said. \u201cWe don\u2019t make the finished products, but we make the layer, we make the raw materials, and then we work with companies like 3M.\u201d He added that branding could become a significant part of the business, similar to Gore-tex.<\/p>\n

The startup has raised $2.3 million, including investments from the founders and other angel investors.<\/p>\n

Hear more from Okosix and dozens of other startups firsthand, participate in valuable workshops, and make lasting connections at this year\u2019s Disrupt, taking place October 27 to 29 in San Francisco.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"TechCrunch<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

If you liked the article, do not forget to share it with your friends. Follow us on\u00a0Google News<\/a><\/span>\u00a0too, click on the star and choose us from your favorites.<\/span><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\n

If you want to read more like this article, you can visit our Technology<\/a><\/span> category.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Healthcare is awash in single-use plastics. In U.S. healthcare facilities alone, more than 2,800 tons of plastic packaging and products are thrown out every day.\u00a0 Few people are more aware of this than Eddie Yu. Early in the pandemic, Yu founded a company that made disposable masks. One day, his niece was with him while…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":693348,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/okosix_69b.jpg.jpeg?resize=1200,800","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[123589,158982,151516,77143,158983,158984,46420,152186,70917,76751,154494,153868],"class_list":["post-693347","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-technology","tag-biodegradable","tag-bioplastics","tag-biotech-health","tag-climate","tag-healthcare-startups","tag-okosix","tag-plastics","tag-startup-battlefield","tag-startups","tag-sustainability","tag-techcrunch-disrupt","tag-techcrunch-disrupt-2025"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/693347","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=693347"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/693347\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/693348"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=693347"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=693347"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=693347"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}