Tobelli

Investing in the Tobelli film addresses three major challenges the global community faces today: eliminating food waste, eliminating plastic waste, and saving farmers’ livelihoods amidst a declining market.

With smoking rates on the decline after peaking in the 1960s and ‘70s, tobacco is a crop that needs novel and widespread use that keeps nicotine off teens’ hands and food on farmers’ tables. As the amount of smokers declines, tobacco farmers around the world, such as those in Malawi, find themselves in extreme poverty when their exports decrease. Despite the decrease in the amount of smokers worldwide, it is a struggle for farmers in low-income countries to switch to producing different crops due to the infrastructure limitations and industry subsidies, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). 

The dire need to repurpose the tobacco crop also extends to the harmful impact of smoking: cigarette butts make up nearly 38% of all waste and contribute 1.69 billion pounds of toxic waste yearly. The process of cultivating toxic additives found in cigarettes, including ammonia compounds, added sugars, menthol, levulinic acid, produce large amounts of toxic waste, destroying nearby ecosystems. The detrimental environmental impact coupled with numerous long term health complications are a sign that tobacco use must change. In 1995, it was reported that nearly 2300 million kilograms of manufacturing waste are generated from the cigarette manufacturing process annually, including an additional 209 million kilograms of chemical waste. 

On the consumer front, Tobelli aims to combat both food and plastic waste, specifically in countries with a higher population, including China, India, and the United States. These three countries alone waste more than 169 tons of food annually according to the United Nations Environment Programme’s (UNEP) 2021 review. This study also shed light into domestic food waste, as the United States alone wastes over 1500 calories of food, per capita, per day. American overconsumption inevitably results in families buying more food than actually needed, leading to waste of, most notably, seafood, followed by fresh fruits and vegetables. Instead of taking great care to preserve these foods for a later date, consumers would rather dispose of them. Currently, few use food preservative packaging such as safety wraps and freshners, leaving the average American to discard 400 pounds of food annually, accounting for 17% of total annual food waste. However, the single-use, no-compromise, yet still eco-friendly packaging model of Tobelli provides an easy fix for American consumers, extending the longevity of their fresh food with minimal effort. 

Tobelli essentially kills two birds with one stone: by repurposing tobacco and salvaging tobacco farmers’ otherwise threatened livelihoods, Tobelli is also able to mitigate household food loss using natural preservatives.

Aimed at repurposing the tobacco plant, Tobelli is a nicotine-free double layer biodegradable plastic wrap that extends the shelf life of perishables by up to two weeks. Tobelli emerges as a bioplastic film with a higher tensile strength than that of commercial plastic bags whilst still exhibiting heightened qualities of elasticity and malleability. As with the generic “cling wrap”, Tobelli’s preservative film consists of three layers, each with its own function in aiding food preservation or storage. 

The outer and inner layers are made of the tobacco plant’s cellulose. Since this layer is an imitation plastic, thereby an insulator, electric charges build up on the surface of the layer, allowing it to perform as a clingy fixative without requiring toxic adhesives that could impact food safety, providing the wrapped food with a tight seal. Nicotine will first be removed through boiling (nicotine presence will be tested via gas chromatography-mass-spectrometry, regarded as the “gold standard” for drug testing), which still preserves the structural integrity of the plant’s cellulose because the macromolecule is not susceptible to significant cleavage of bonds from heat-based damage. The reason why the tobacco plant is an optimal source for cellulose is because it has one of the highest cellulose concentrations at an average of 35% cellulose per stalk. Cellulose and its derivatives form antibacterial and antioxidant bioactive compounds. These compounds have unique properties for food preservation, including their hydrophilic nature, which absorb moisture in moderation, preventing mold growth without compromising food freshness.

The middle layer is a bioplastic layer infused with plant-based flavorless and colorless preservatives including turmeric and rosemary extract, and safe levels of the naturally-occurring preservatives sodium nitrite 250 and nitrate 251, propionic acid, and citric acid. The variety of preservatives included mitigate all food spoilage ranging from meat to produce to breads.

Tobelli contributes to the totality of public good as it targets three core world issues of food waste, plastic waste, and the changing standard of normality for tobacco farmers. Tobelli provides consumers with a more environmentally friendly “cling wrap” alternative without forcing them to relinquish convenience or functionality. Tobelli’s plan incorporates several civil engagement aspects as it contributes to the transition to a no-smoking world whilst still supporting agricultural communities dependent on the tobacco industry. 

Even in a world where tobacco farms are still targeted primarily by the smoking industry, a large portion of tobacco crop is unnecessarily wasted. When tobacco is harvested, the portion of the plant being harvested for smoking/chewing purposes includes primarily the leaves with piles of tobacco stalks being left behind. Research shows that the stalks that remain in the field after harvest are a substantial cause of residual pest infestations and tobacco diseases in the crop. Furthermore, high quantities of tobacco stalks and stems are being produced annually by farmers and tobacco curing companies, with the latter producing more than 48 million kilograms of tobacco stalks just as recently as 2017. So, what do these farmers do with these stalks? They burn them, resulting in major contributions to environmental pollution through the production of greenhouse gasses and Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) and kilograms of wasted, unusable raw material. Tobelli mitigates both of these problems as it directly utilizes the tobacco stalk to draw out the cellulose it requires for the base of its film. Our product also provides a more stable and less exploitative income to tobacco farmers than that of "big tobacco" companies. Oftentimes, these farmers come from centuries of knowledge of the cultivation of only one crop, and their soils, too, have been specifically designed to grow one plant over time. Instead of forcing tobacco farmers to grow a different crop with no knowledge or financial support, we let them continue growing tobacco, but harvest a completely different part with better environmental and humanitarian benefits. 

Currently, we have received support from our school and will be prototyping our product with real tobacco stalks at the Grainger School of Engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign. We are also the grand prize winners of the T-Mobile x Ashoka Changemakers Challenge, top 5 finalists for the Conrad Challenge, top 100 of the Blue Ocean Competition, finalists for the Innovation Dupage Competition, and the 2nd place winners of the Jacobson Competition. We currently have $22,100 in non-dilutive seed funding and over $300,000 each in university scholarships. We hope to reach more people and let them know about our product and gain more funding through grants and competitions.

We have connected with a patent lawyer that graduated from our school that we work with, as well as , our school's innovation and inquiry center. They are primarily providing us with guidance as well as financial support as we work to market and prototype our product and bring it from its seed phase into an actual functioning plastic wrap. They have many connections to legal representatives and engineers/professors at universities as well, with whom we hope to get in touch after finalizing our product. 

Our long term target customer archetype is anyone who regularly uses plastic food packaging. But in order to get there, first we must breach our SOM who are Eco-advocating Americans part of like minded organizations.

We extended a survey to the members three anti-smoking and sustainability-related groups in the Chicagoland network of environmental NPOs and community groups, garnering 2,200 responses; there is clear evidence that this market entry strategy (marketing to young, eco-advocating Americans) will breach dense competition pool. 

Additionally, we are in contact with the family of the wife of Ulf Ewaldsson, who is a T-Mobile executive we met in Seattle during the T-Mobile Changemakers Challenge Summit. He gave us his business card and we established a line of communication with his wife's family in the Philippines and they have shipped us a sample of their tobacco stalk for us to prototype on once we commute to the University of Illinois (we live in a boarding school, so commuting off-campus is difficult). 

Tobelli stands out from other tobacco-based products because it uses the entirety of the tobacco plant instead of only the leaves. Traditionally, the stalk is most often discarded in tobacco byproduct manufacturing processes, whereas Tobelli effectively utilizes cellulose from the whole plant, especially this stalk. Second, cellulose packaging is already readily available in the form of cellulose acetate which is a combination of raw cellulose and a binding agent, either cotton linters or wood pulp. However, none of the widely-used binding agents are suitable for food packaging, as they are not food-safe. In contrast, Tobelli subverts the need for a toxic binding agent by inserting a dry layer in the middle of the two plastic ones, keeping the packaging sturdy without adding unnecessary ingredients. 

The most unique factor of Tobelli is not the ingredients of the film, but their properties - ingredients that are scientifically proven to extend shelf life of food products. While other companies have produced food preservative packs and bags, Tobelli uses a more flexible, tensile, and adaptive material and its double-layer technology captures ethylene without altering the food wrapped inside, making Tobelli a vital addition to the $338 billion food packaging industry. Currently there is looser regulation on products that extend shelf life, as even irradiation is legal by the FDIA. This industry has seen a recent surge of eco-friendly measures, such as paying extra for plastic bags and discontinuation of plastic straws at some restaurants. 

The variety of natural food preservatives in the middle layer make Tobelli a viable option for a wide range of foods, including fresh produce, meat, and bread. These preservatives have been scientifically proven to preserve food freshness, without exposing it to unnecessary chemicals. Cellulose alone has antibacterial properties, absorbing moisture and destroying mold-growing bacteria on food. Lastly, the method of extracting nicotine, boiling, does NOT alter its properties, giving it the same level of functionality as before boiling. The versatility of food preservatives in Tobelli coupled with tobacco cellulose’s many benefits give Tobelli the perfect combination of form and functionality. 

Although the food packaging industry has seen a recent influx of biodegradable packaging alternatives, the food film niche is still limited in terms of biodegradable options. Not only is Tobelli biodegradable and eco-friendly, its main purpose is to be a 2-in-1 food packaging and preservative. The material that this product is made out of is a bioplastic made of tobacco, agar-agar, and sorbitol. Other products currently available on the market only target one of our features or do not have the unique combination of adaptability that Tobelli has due to their rigid rectangular shape. Tobelli, on the other hand, adapts to the foods it is preserving and packaging rather than forcing consumers to compromise on one or the other as Tobelli acts as an airtight container, perfectly fitted for every unique food item.

 By marketing to a rapidly growing market of eco-friendly individuals, Tobelli will soon become the standard for food packaging - effective, convenient, biodegradable, and strong. Tobelli wrap is adaptable to practically all solid perishable foods. In today’s fast-paced world, many people are unwilling to trade convenience for sustainability, but Tobelli achieves both outcomes, as it is both single-use and biodegradable. It also incorporates other natural ingredients that work to preserve food and serve as antibacterial agents in biological systems worldwide. The triple-layer film builds on a tobacco cellulose base combined with a 1% glycerol solution, agar-agar, sorbitol, white vinegar, and starch to create a moldable and biodegradable substance. The middle layer of cellulose bioplastic is made of a plant-based solution of products that are scientifically proven to preserve food, such as turmeric, rosemary, citric acid, and jojoba oil - these ingredients work to extract ethylene, the chemical gaseous plant hormone that plays an important role in inducing the ripening process for many fruits. This slows the process of ripening, thereby keeping food fresh for longer. 

Tobelli’s impact goals for the next immediate year are to secure enough funding to commit to lab prototyping at an independent lab. In order to reach that goal, team Tobelli first needs to reach a series of shorter, more bite-sized goals. First, along with our mentors, our team has to determine the best independent lab best fit for our operations. Currently, we’ve been pursuing open source research with the UIC AMRL Labs and UIUC Material Sciences Labs but need to pursue an independent relationship in order to protect our intellectual property and conduct operations more directly. Next, we need to invest in the machinery required to extrude plastic film to its desired thickness, known as blown film extrusion machinery. Acquiring such machinery will bring us one step closer to achieving our final prototype and ultimately optimize the process and expedite our timeline. Additionally, we have filed a provisional patent which guarantees us a 1-year protection period, but during our prototyping phase described above, we will also be filing for a design patent (low chance of rejection compared to a utility patent) through a patent lawyer that works with our school. 

Tobelli’s manufacturing process builds upon both decades-long and new research. Its function is to serve as a singular effort to mitigate the combined causes of plastic and food waste, whilst simultaneously providing an avenue of occupational opportunities for tobacco-farming dependent communities. Aside from its contribution to the public good, the unique merit in the Tobelli film itself lies in its ability to subvert two categories of food packaging into one, that of the storage focused, form-fitting, moisture-retaining household “cling wrap”, and that of the preservation focused, rigid storage containers with aims to elongate the shelf lives of various produce and raw meats. 

The outermost and innermost layers of the film is made of a cellulose-bioplastic layer derived from the discarded stalks of the Nicotiana tabacum, or the common tobacco plant. The tobacco plant is an optimal source for cellulose, as it has one of the highest cellulose concentrations at an average of 34.30% cellulose per stalk. Cellulose biomass is also a renewable resource unlike the crude oil required to make generic plastics, making Tobelli a much more sustainable product. Since bioplastics are plastic materials derived from renewable biomass sources, which can be used for bags, food packaging, and other single-use disposable silverware, they are biodegradable. 

To harvest the cellulose in the tobacco stalks, Nicotine will first be removed through an inexpensive boiling process wherein tobacco is washed and immediately immersed in boiled water which is renewed every 24 hours for five days. In the initial stages of production, a chromatography-mass spectrometry method, often regarded as the “gold standard” for drug testing, will also be conducted to test for the presence of nicotine prior to manufacturing to reassure consumers that the use of a tobacco derivative poses no risk to their health and safety. While stalks are left to dry, a leaf sample from each stalk will be taken for the chromatography test, whose turnaround time is only ten to thirty minutes, making this method a time-efficient option. Stalks whose results detect nicotine will be reboiled for three more days before cellulose extraction is to occur.

This boiling process will still preserve the structural integrity of the tobacco’s cellulose because the macromolecule is not susceptible to significant cleavage of bonds from heat-based damage. Once the boiling process concludes, the cellulose cultivation process begins. Tobacco stalks on average have a cellulose content of 34.30%, hemicellulose content of 14.55 %, and lignin content was 16.49% with the remainder being smaller quantities of other components such as pentosan. To derive cellulose from the stalk, it is vital to separate it from the other composite components of the tobacco stalk, hemicellulose, and lignin. An ecologically and economically efficient method in extracting cellulose of the highest purity follows the general methodology of the acclaimed Technical Association of the Pulp and Paper Industry (TAPPI) method, involving Chloride bleaching after an initial Sodium Hydroxide treatment in order to remove the other two stalk components, without running the risk of dissolving or degrading the leftover cellulose.

Once the cellulose is successfully derived from the tobacco stalk, it is added to a mixture of sorbitol, starch, distilled water, agar-agar, 1% glycerol solution, and white vinegar. The cellulose mixes with the starch, activated by the presence of electrically charged ions in the vinegar, to form a base for the plastic, in which the sorbitol and glycerol solution performs as a plasticizer that links polymer chains together and allows them to slide past each other increasing the elasticity of the overall film. Further tests will be carried to determine the optimal quantity of glycerol since increasing glycerol decreases tensile strength. However, to ensure the film experiences no loss of tensile strength or durability, the gelatinous, thickening agent of agar-agar is added to the mixture which also accelerates the biodegradability of the polymer due to Poly Hydroxy Butyrate (PHB) present in the agar cell. Once duly combined and heated to a temperature of 165 degrees Celsius, the heated plastic will be poured in a thin layer onto a large conveyor belt which will stretch the film, while warm, into an approximately 0.3 mm layer film which thenceforth will be left to cool for 3 days.

Each layer is an imitation bioplastic, when you unroll the film, some of the electrons on the surface of one layer get pulled away onto the adjacent layer. This motion creates patches of positive and negative electrostatic and as an insulator, these electric charges build up on the surface of the layer, allowing it to perform as a clingy fixative when exposed to slight friction, without requiring toxic resin adhesives that could impact food safety, but still providing the wrapped food with a tight seal. 

The extremely thin nature of Tobelli’s film also aids in exponentially speeding up the time required to decompose/biodegrade the bioplastic. Since the film is composed of three ultra-thin layers of around 0.3 mm, the total 0.9 mm film takes at most a month to fully biodegrade, even when barred from sunlight exposure, while regular plastic wraps in contrast require more than 500 years to fully decompose.

Tobelli has yet to launch its solution as of current; however, we still have estimated metrics of who our solution will serve. Tobelli serves both its producers and its consumers and has set up communication channels with both groups. For our producers, we’ve currently been forming focus groups of various tobacco farmers in large tobacco output communities such as Karnataka, India, Santiago, Dominican Republic, and Manicaland, Zimbabwe, with each group consisting of around 200-250 tobacco farmers. For our consumers, our long term target archetype is anyone who regularly uses plastic food packaging. But in order to get there, we must first breach our serviceable obtainable market, which are Eco-advocating Americans part of like-minded organizations. These organizations range from anti-smoking ventures to single-use plastic elimination initiatives, to whom we extended a survey. 

Of the 203,000 members in these anti-smoking and sustainability-related organizations in the Chicagoland area alone, if only 15% purchase a single unit, that results in $122,000 in launch revenue. Now, if that same 15% market share was applied to our total available market, we are looking at a $3.6 million dollar valuation, and that’s yearly.

Currently the barriers that the Tobelli project’s execution faces are both technical and financial in nature. As a highly technical innovation, in order to develop the market-ready prototype of the Tobelli Film, it is necessary to employ industrial laboratory resources to do so. Currently, we have a working prototype through school lab testing in order to reach proof of concept; however, in order to reach a goal in which a product is created that benefits both farmers and customers through investing competition funds into Research and Development, a barrier that has a fairly large price tag. With an estimated investment of 55,000 dollars, our Tobelli team will be able to reach its final prototype, and by accumulating such funds through various seed funding opportunities, we will be successful in eliminating both our technical and financial barriers in one fell swoop.

Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy, T-Mobile, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign Material Sciences Department - mentorship, funding, and lab space. 

Traditional tobacco use is down over 29% globally due to a negative social perception and various resulting legislation. And, while the push for a smoke-free world is undeniably positive, a reduced demand for the tobacco crop could have dire consequences. Roughly 15 million farmers, and the communities they support, worldwide, are not as eager to watch this plant disappear, as tobacco has a global economic impact of 16.7 billion dollars, and is a primary export of countries such as Honduras, Ecuador, and the Dominican Republic. Therefore, repurposing the tobacco crop isn’t just innovative, it can offer a lifeline to the millions of farmers and indigenous communities who directly rely on its production. 

The population we are serving is both domestic and international Tobacco farmers. Instead of harvesting nicotine from tobacco leaves and burning the stalks, an extremely common practice used to clear the fields to prepare for the next round of harvest, we are paying farmers to take a problem and hassle (the left stalks) off their hands. Additionally, if these farms do not want to grow tobacco only for Tobelli, they can continue extracting nicotine from the leaves, as that is a completely separate process that does not interfere with cellulose extraction occurring in the stalks. These farmers, now more likely than not to face financial hardship due to declining cigarette demand, will now be provided a higher, equitable, more stable income that they can then use to fund the healthcare, food supply, and education of their families. Traditional tobacco use takes control over the futures of so many of its users. However, Tobelli flips this notion on its head, empowering the farmers to take control of their futures through a novel tobacco product.

Our plan will follow a B2C model selling directly on our website. One standard unit of Tobelli Film costs only $3.99 as the majority of our costs are covered by our manufacturer in house. In terms of our customers, since the tobacco is so cheap to source, most of our manufacturing costs will be transportation and the compabilitizers and plasticizers and not the tobacco cellulose base, thereby driving the price of the product down and placing it in the same price range as the existing plastic film dominator, Glad Wrap. Now, customers will not have to choose between food preservation, eco-friendliness, and affordability, since Tobelli has all three. 

Initially, our prototyping and manufacturing will be funded by grants and donations. We plan on purchasing a factory-grade blown film extrusion machine, as that is how plastic film (including bioplastic) is made. We also plan on manufacturing overseas through our manufacturer, Plastic Film China. Tobelli’s bioplastic film will be developed with the utmost quality control and low prices, with this manufacturer’s cost of making a bioplastic set at a cheap $0.87 per pound. For the first three years, Tobelli’s projected sales are 20,000 units sold during the year of launch, 80,000 units sold the following year, and 300,000 units sold the year afterwards, resulting in a break-even point by two years and four months of operation. The exponential growth is expected as we enter later stages of our marketing plan and begin to reach the Serviceable Available Market, thereby impacting a wider audience. At the initial SOM stage, marketing will be less costly, as the operational costs will emerge mostly from paying for the website domain. As Tobelli advances to later stages of its marketing plan, marginal manufacturing costs will be at an all-time low, because an increase in sales results in mass production. However, Tobelli treats its employees with a $17.00 USD hourly pay rate, more than $3 over the national average for a laborer income.