Lighting from bioluminescent glow sticks

These non-toxic, plastic-free sticks biodegrade in nature

Spotted: You may not have given much thought to the glowsticks you’ve seen at music festivals and events, but these single-use sticks are highly unsustainable. Made from plastic, glowsticks contain harmful petroleum-based chemicals that currently lack options for waste recovery. Lux Bio was founded to find an answer to this problem.

The startup has developed a completely non-toxic bioluminescent system, called Lume, that requires none of the chemicals normally used in glowstick fluid. Lux Bio’s glowsticks are, instead, powered by an enzymatic reaction, similar to that which occurs in naturally bioluminescent organisms. The base formula is in powdered form, which activates when mixed with water.

The reaction, which generates stable light for over 20 hours, takes place in a stick made from certified marine biodegradable materials and home-compostable packaging. This means that even if the sticks end up thrown on the ground or in the ocean, microbial activity will quickly compost the materials.

Applications for Lume go beyond recreational use at parties and music concerts. These glowsticks also provide essential light for mining, commercial fishing, scuba diving, defence, search and rescue, diagnostics, humanitarian aid, and so much more.

The company recently moved into a dedicated pilot production facility in Vancouver, British Columbia, and is working on scaling up the production capacity of its bioluminescent material from milligrammes to kilogrammes.

Written By: Lisa Magloff