Environmental Sustainability

Due to both natural collagen and elastin being found in nature, the production of both collagen and elastin is very low in both terms of CO2 footprint and use of materials. In Granta, this makes it difficult to do an EcoAudit since the materials are classified with no CO2 or hazardous byproduct.

When compared to some of the scaffolding additives, however, the lb/lb for CO2 is higher than one would expect.

Above: Image of primary production CO2 footprint calculated from multiple types of materials used in tissue engineering and some that are common in households for comparison (Granta EduPack 2021).

PLGA is one of the main materials that can be used for scaffolding or as an additive when creating tissue from scratch (Gibson 2016). PLGA has a high rate ranging from 2.7-3.3 lb/lb of CO2 created in order for production (Granta EduPack 2021). This raw material production shows that there are unseen byproducts of the genetically engineered tissue even though the main materials might be natural.

In the aspect of collagen, sometimes these materials need to be cleansed of harmful germs in order to be used in the tissue which is typically done through acid or another chemical. By-products of this could impact the environment due to pollution of waterways even if the chemicals are taken care of with the correct protocols.

Since all bio-engineered tissue needs to be biocompatible and become a part of the body essentially. The end of the cycle is typically the death of the patient or the necessity for a second surgery. Generally, the material is able to biodegrade and leave no trace behind unless some bio-polymer that is plastic-based is used in the artificial tissue. Otherwise, the material would probably either be taken in for research or would find itself in the ”trash” and most likely be able to survive for a bit since these materials are built to last much stress and force from within the body.

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