Each year, over 25 billion trees are logged or burned, but only 15 billion are planted – addressing this unsustainable shortfall, a drone startup is working toward an initial goal of aerially planting 1 billion seeds per year.

Biocarbon Engineering‘s approach involves mapping the geography of target areas, assessing their needs and conditions, then shooting soil-penetrating seed pods directly into the ground below from around 5 to 10 feet above. Already germinated and encased in a nutrient-rich gel, the seeds can be shot at a rate of 10 per second and, with multiple drones, could put 36,000 trees in the ground each day for about 15% of the cost of conventional planting methods.

One of the group’s founders is a 20-year NASA veteran who knows the stakes and understands the technological needs of this ambitious plan. The group aims to work with global non-profits and forestry services to deploy their solution around the world, mapping, planting and monitoring the results for further interventions.

From the company: “Destruction of global forests from lumber, mining, agriculture, and urban expansion destroys 26 billion trees each year. We believe that this industrial scale deforestation is best combated using the latest automation technologies. We use emerging technologies to deliver precision planting and mapping to increase the uptake rates and the likelihood of healthy forest development.”

“There are a variety of tree-planting techniques, including planting by hand and delivering dry seeds by air. However, hand-planting is slow and expensive, and spreading dry seeds results in low uptake rates. Our solution balances these two methods. First, by planting germinated seeds using precision agriculture techniques, we increase uptake rates. Second, our scalable, automated technology significantly reduces the manpower requirements and costs. Finally, our mapping UAVs will also provide invaluable intelligence on planting patterns, landscape design and appropriate timing.”

The post Seed Startup Aims to Plant 1 Billion Trees a Year by Drone first appeared on Gajitz.

With the potential to convert nearly 150 billion trashed coffee cups per year (in the US alone) into regional seed bombs, this product aims to go beyond simple recyclability to help replenish native wildflower populations in regions around the country (or eventually: the world).

The creators of Plant Trash boast compost-certified cups that created with post-consumer paper contain organic seeds of indigenous species, starting with various parts of California – they are also testing to make sure the seeds will be able to survive the heat of being adjacent to a hot beverage.

“We have taken those fibers from local recycling centers, which would usually be too rough to implement back into a packaging product, and created a cup that we are happy to truly name the most eco friendly disposable coffee cup.”

The paper cups themselves will biodegrade naturally in about half a year and help the surrounding soil grow the seeds contained within them. The seed mixes all include a tree seed as well as various region-appropriate plant seeds.

“The consumer drinks their coffee from the coffee shop.  If they choose to take the cup with them, they can plant it in several scenarios based off of the seed variety embedded within the cup. They can see the seed variety displayed on the front of their cup as well as planting instructions on the bottom of the cup.  ”

“Where does our trash actually go?  With our current waste stream, as consumers none of us really know.  In America we discard over 146 billion cups from coffee consumption annually.  Even when we think we are recycling and doing a good deed, the paper itself within these products can only be reused 2-3x before the fibers are unusable and discarded into local landfills without consumer’s knowing.”

“Currently, we are testing the Coffee Cup CA Blend prototypes in a variety of soil types to pin point our germination periods as well as time range of decomposition for our bio based papers and liners. We are testing seeds types to find their temperature variability when exposed to high heats within the paper press processes as well as when they are exposed to the heat of hot beverages. We have a partnering company in which we are working with to further develop commercial grade prototypes for large scale production.”

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