Photos by edkashi / A mountain of bagasse, the fibrous material left after sugar cane production, is loaded for use in the power generation station at the Usina São Manoel, where sugar and ethanol are produced in a 24/7 operation, in Sao Manoel, Brazil. Sugar cane contains only about 10% sugar. The other 90% is bagasse—the remains after the pulverizing and squeezing of sugar-bearing juice. This image is from 2011, and today I read in the Economist about a new material for coffee cups of the future: waste from sugar cane. Zhu Hongli, a mechanical engineer at Northeastern University, and her colleagues describe the potential of bagasse as a biodegradable replacement for plastic disposable food containers. While this isn’t the first time this idea has been tested, Hongli found the potential missing ingredient: bamboo. She and her colleagues found that the new material is twice as strong as the plastic used to make cups and it can remain intact when filled with boiling water for almost t...