‘Smells Like Sugar, Feels Like Wood’: Startup Invents 3D-Printer Filament From Upcycled Tequila Waste

(Photo by: SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY via AP Images)

A new Kickstarter campaign aims to turn the world’s fastest-growing spirit into the latest 3D-printing material.

EcoLife Labs’s PolyAgave was conceived by a husband and wife team based in Guadalajara, Mexico, less than a stone’s throw away from the world’s tequila-producing epicenter. Their product turns blue weber agave fibers — the very same used to make tequila — into brittle pellets that can be spooled into 3D-printer filament.

PolyAgave in action. (Photo: EcoLife Labs)

Once printed, the material takes on a wood-like texture, “smells good, like sugar” and offers an environmentally friendly alternative that might eventually reduce the hefty cost of printing components. As of August 15, the project has raised $55 of its $50,405 goal.

EcoLife Labs joins a growing movement of distillers, engineers and construction experts hoping to upcycle the remains of Mexico’s agave spirits empire.

Compared to the likes of whiskey or gin, tequila is an incredibly materials-heavy industry. Approximately 11 pounds of agave are required for just one bottle of tequila; after being harvested from the fields, heaps of agave are steamed and then crushed using stone tahonas, roller mills or diffusers. By the time your agave reaches distillation, it leaves behind a mountain of leftover fibers.

For context, a single ripe blue weber agave plant can weigh anywhere from 80 to 300 pounds. The tequila industry harvests 50 million every year — and that number is expected to grow.

Distillers have discovered various techniques to upcycle the leftover material. One particularly popular method, adopted by both Astral Tequila and Kendall Jenner’s 818, converts spent agave fibers into bricks that can be used to build homes in the community.

“Rather than dispose of our tequila production waste in landfills, the team, overseen by Civil Engineer Martha Jiménez Cardoso, combines spent agave fibers (bagazo) with earth and liquid runoff from distillation (vinasa) to create Adobe bricks,” says Astral Tequila. (Photo: Astral)

Jose Cuervo, the largest tequila producer in the world, processes leftover agave to manufacture straws, handbags, paper, surfboards, car parts and toothbrushes. Across the Internet, websites like the Sustainable Agave Company sell agave cutlery kits and cups by the thousands.

If you’re interested in checking out PolyAgave, find the product’s Kickstarter here.

Read More: 

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Is Tequila Really the Healthiest Spirit? Exploring the Half-Truths of Agave Spirits Folklore

From Hidden Freezers to Underground Sex Shops: A Tour Through the World’s Most Secretive Tequila Speakeasies 

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