Biomanufactured materials
We grow bacterial cellulose and turn it into disposables for healthcare. We are starting with the medicine cup.
A world first, to our knowledge Our own data (details and source)
A pilot is running at Maasstad Ziekenhuis in Rotterdam, where hospital staff test our cup during the medication round. Source (details and source)
Read about the pilot
The problem
Dutch healthcare alone uses over 50 million plastic medicine cups a year. How we calculated this Estimate (details and source)
Each cup holds a few pills during the medication round. Then it goes into the incinerator with the hospital waste.
Why not just switch?
Polypropylene made from fossil fuels, used once. A plastic medicine cup has a footprint of about 11.2 g CO₂-eq; a paper one about 1.5 g. Source (details and source)
Paper goes soft when it gets wet. Paper disposable cups often have a plastic coating to make them watertight. Under EU rules that makes them a single-use plastic product. Source (details and source)
Some of those coatings contain PFAS. Since 12 August 2026 the EU Packaging Regulation has restricted PFAS in food-contact packaging. Source (details and source)
Reusable cups have to be collected, washed and returned, with strict infection control on every ward. That does not fit well with a medication round.
Our solution
From plant to cup and back again. Bacteria make the material and we shape it. The dotted part is our goal. We are not there yet.
Plants grow in the fields and are processed into food and other products. What is left over are side streams.
Our bacteria grow on side streams from the food industry, not on food itself. Our own data (details and source)
In a tray, bacteria weave a sheet of pure cellulose.
How we form the material into a rigid cup is our own innovation. In March 2026 Plastilose filed a Dutch patent application.
The cup is designed for the dispensers and pill crushers hospitals already use.
Our goal is a cup that can go in the organic waste after use and become compost. This is a goal, not a property of today's cup. Today the cup goes in general waste. We are still testing organic-waste and paper-recycling routes with waste processors. Nothing has been agreed. We do not have a compostability certificate. Goal (details and source)
Our goal is for that compost to go back to the fields, where new plants grow.
The first product
A 30 ml medicine cup, designed for the dispensers and pill crushers hospitals already use. Made of grown cellulose, not oil.
The cup is made of cellulose, with no coating, laminate or additives. There is no plastic in it. Our own data (details and source)
We use no PFAS and no coating. Our own data (details and source)
In a published study, bacterial cellulose did not react chemically with the two medicines tested, ibuprofen and propranolol. Source (details and source)
Formed cups hold liquid in our laboratory tests. Internal test (details and source)
In a published study, bacterial cellulose lost about 75% of its mass in 8 weeks buried in soil. Source (details and source) What is bacterial cellulose?
It was a greenhouse soil-burial test. It was done on the material, not on our cup. We do not have a compostability certificate.
Interest
Supported by
Our plan
These are goals and plans, not forecasts or commitments. They depend on funding and on what we learn on the pilot line. Dates and numbers may change.
Our manufacturing process is at TRL 4 to 5, with TRL 5 targeted for early 2027.
Our own data (details and source)A pilot line for about 10,000 cups a week, under construction in Delft, with the goal of running by the end of 2026.
Goal (details and source)Our plan is our own production line for 1 million cups a week. We aim for the first cups at the end of 2028 and full capacity in 2030.
Goal (details and source)The first licence is planned for 2030. After that, partners can build factories with our process, each with a line of 1 million cups a week.
Goal (details and source)The team
We debate, we sometimes disagree and we keep each other sharp. That works because we trust each other enough to be honest. Our team consists of two co-founders and five employees. We also have two advisers. Our own data (details and source)
Co-founder and CEO
Co-founder and CTO
Microbiologist
Product engineer
Microbiologist
Robotics automation engineer
Mechanical engineer
Senior adviser
Senior adviser
Your path
Become a Founding Partner or start a pilot on your ward.
The story, the milestones and how to request our deck.
Microbiology, engineering and automation. Help us build our production.
Prefer email? info@plastilose.nl
Everything we claim on this page, with the source, the conditions and the date we last checked it. Our own testing is marked as Internal test, plans as Goal. So you can check for yourself what each claim rests on.
