Conmover


Alicia Oritz, Sustainable Design Certificate Continuing Education, 2022

Faculty Sponsor: Kat Choate, School of Continuing and Professional Studies

Conmover is a bio-assisted plastic digester inspired by mealworm gut. Conmover's plastic digesting tubules mimic the form of the gut and are populated by the bacteria present in mealworms. An artifical peristalsis element was incorporated to assist with the movement of materials along the tubules and to further imitate conditions of the mealworm gut. The end product is expected to be organic, non-toxic particulate carbon. Conmover's design inspiration came from the idea of moving plastic away from simple recyling. Rather, synthetic plastic is digested back to an organic material which can find use in compost or more excitingly reincarnate into a sustainable material.