Thank you very much for the question.
I already talked about it in my opening remarks, but I want to give one example of how the University of Guelph has made a breakthrough in composite materials, and especially biocomposite materials. We pyrolyzed all the waste coming out, whether municipal solid waste, biomass waste or waste plastics, etc. The first time, we invented the terminology “biocarbon”. Biocarbon is a filler material.
In the automotive industry, for example, most of the parts are black in colour. When an automotive part is made, whether it's the bumper of a car, the seat of a car or the handle of a car, it's all mostly made from polypropylene-based materials mixed with talc or glass fibre. The talc and glass fibre are very energy-intensive and very high density. For example, they're 2.6 grams per centimetre cubed. With our invention of those biocarbons, whose density is one-half that, we converted the waste into the materials and we supported the circular economy and used filler materials.
We invented that technology, and it is now being used as a new biocomposite, biocarbon-based material by the Ford Motor Company in its headlamp housing in the Lincoln model. It is 20% lighter than the talc-filled polypropylene composites, and it is sustainable.
That's one of the innovations we made from waste resources to support the circular economy. That's one example.