Mango Materials

Mango Materials, a biomanufacturing company in the San Francisco Bay Area, is addressing plastic pollution and climate change by converting waste methane gas into a biodegradable plastic substitute. The company was founded in 2010 by three female scientists: CEO Molly Morse, CTO Allison Pieja, and COO Anne Schauer-Gimenez. The venture originated from the Ph.D. research of Morse and Pieja at Stanford University, where they investigated the production of polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) biopolymers from methane. Morse's lifelong passion for eliminating plastic pollution, sparked by a childhood visit to the Monterey Bay Aquarium, and her subsequent experience in venture capital, motivated the company's formation. Pieja pioneered PHA production from methane in the lab, while Schauer-Gimenez, whom Morse met at a conference, brought expertise in methane from various industries.

The company's core business revolves around a proprietary fermentation process that uses naturally occurring, non-genetically modified bacteria to consume methane from sources like wastewater treatment plants, landfills, and agricultural facilities. These microbes naturally produce PHA, a biopolymer, inside their cells. Mango Materials harvests and formulates this polymer into pellets, branded as YOPP+, which serve as a direct replacement for conventional plastics in existing manufacturing supply chains. The business model is B2B, where the company collaborates with end brands, particularly in the beauty, fashion, and textile industries, who then pull the material through their supply chains.

Mango Materials' product, PHA, is a versatile biopolyester that can be tailored for various applications, including injection molding for rigid products like cosmetic packaging, and melt spinning for fibers to create a sustainable alternative to polyester in apparel and textiles. Unlike many other bioplastics, such as PLA, which require specific industrial composting conditions, Mango Materials' PHA can biodegrade in numerous natural environments, including oceans, breaking down completely without leaving harmful residues. This creates the potential for a closed-loop system where products, at their end-of-life, can biodegrade in modern waste facilities, producing methane that can be recaptured to create new PHA. In November 2023, the company achieved a significant milestone by opening its first launch facility at a wastewater treatment plant in Vacaville, California, to validate its technology at a larger scale. The company has received grant funding from entities like NASA and the NSF, and seed funding from investors including Plug and Play Tech Center.

Keywords: PHA, bioplastics, methane valorization, biodegradable polymers, sustainable materials, carbon capture, circular economy, waste-to-value, green technology, biomanufacturing, plastic alternatives, polyester replacement, sustainable textiles, cosmetics packaging, environmental engineering, methane emissions, microbial fermentation, YOPP+, P3HB, Molly Morse