Tim DraperFounder and Managing Partne, Draper Associate · I back the ideas that look crazy first

Toxic petroplastics are present inside all of us, and Terra Bioware is fighting back! 🦠

31 Oct 2025 · 1 min

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Petroplastics are in every human body, with 450 million tons produced yearly. Terra Bioware uses microbes to make bioplastics twice as efficient as plant-based versions, scaling the technology from lab to industrial production in 14 months.

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I was evaluating the gap between climate risk and technology solutions. One such critical gap that exists is toxic petroplastics. We produce 450 million tons of this material every year, and right now it's present inside all of us, triggering the risk of serious diseases. Plant-based bioplastics are 3 to 5 times more expensive, limiting their adoption. I set out on a mission to make them scalable. In the last 14 months, our microbial technology has also achieved 2 times higher biopolymer output than plants, and we've also taken it from lab to industrial scale.