Skip to Main Content

Our crowdfunding campaign has ended, but you can still support Bruin Earth Solutions (Plastic2Food) by clicking here.

Plastic2Food Research Fund

$646
12%
Raised toward our $5,000 Goal
11 Donors
Project has ended
Project ended on June 05, at 12:00 AM PDT
Project Owners

Major Bioreactor Progress Update

May 28, 2025

Hi everyone!

Thank you so much for helping support our project! Thanks to your support, the bioreactor sub team was able to run our first wet lab experiments this week!

This week we:

  • Cultured E. coli from frozen stock
  •  Prepared and streaked agar plates
  •  Selected isolated colonies
  •  Ran our very first antibiotic disk diffusion test to observe bacterial resistance zones

This is a huge step toward our mission of engineering Pseudomonas putida (a gut bacterium from mealworms!) to break down styrofoam and convert plastic waste into valuable products — all in a DIY bioreactor.


In order to continue having breakthroughs like this, we would love your support throughout the last week of our Spark campaign! Please help us to spread the word about the work we're doing, and share our campaign link with your friends and family at https://crowdfunding.ucla.edu/plastic2food.


-The Plastic2Food team <3

Our way
of Thanking You

$10

Worm

Adopt a worm and get a personalized digital Adopt-a-Worm certificate! This donation will feed the worms for 2 weeks. (fully tax-deductible)

2 of Unlimited Claimed
Estimated Delivery: June 2025

$25

Pupae

Adopt a worm and get a digital Adopt-A-Worm certificate as well as a personalized video of your worm! This donation will buy us a bag of fungal spawn! (fully tax-deductible)

1 of Unlimited Claimed
Estimated Delivery: June 2025

$50

Beetle

Get a digital Adopt-A-Worm certificate, a personalized video of your adopted worm, and have a beetle home named after you! This donation will fund a complete pH control mechanism for our bioreactor! (fully tax-deductible)

2 of Unlimited Claimed
Estimated Delivery: June 2025

$100

Pleurotus ostreatus

Get a digital Adopt-A-Worm certificate, a personalized video of your adopted worm, and have a fungi home named after you! This donation will fund new blue oyster spores for the fungi team! (fully tax-deductible)

2 of Unlimited Claimed
Estimated Delivery: June 2025

$200

Pseudomonas Putida

Get a digital Adopt-A-Worm certificate, a personalized video of your adopted worm, and have a worm habitat named after you! This will fund our new greenhouse! (fully tax-deductible)

0 of Unlimited Claimed
Estimated Delivery: June 2025
Our Crowdfunding Groups