Finally, a Plant-Based 3D Printing TPU That Truly Biodegrades in Your Backyard?
Ecogenesis Biopolymers has launched a new genTPU filament derived from algae and plant oils.
California-based material start-up, Ecogenesis Biopolymers, just launched a 3D printing TPU filament that is plant-derived and designed to “completely biodegrade in the most sensitive ecosystems, including our waterways and oceans,” the company says.
If you think that means you can start 3D printing beach flip-flops and chuck them in the ocean without an environmental care in the world, though, think again.
As exciting as this prospect is, a closer look at the scientific evidence the company provides on biodegradability reveals some nuance between laboratory definitions and consumer expectations, especially as this marks the company’s first consumer TPU product. But that shouldn’t dissuade you from potentially swapping out your fossil-fuel-derived TPU for an all-around more sustainable option.
The push toward consumers 3D printing their own shoes (a popular use of TPU) is beginning to scale, driven by companies like Bambu Lab, which are pairing shoe design collections with TPU filament, and reinforced by manufacturers such as 3D printing shoe company Zellerfeld, which has received $34.1M in investor funding since its launch in 2020. This combination suggests TPU use is poised to expand rapidly beyond industrial users to more consumers and small businesses.
What Is Bio-Based TPU Really?
First, let’s take a look at Ecogenesis and its genTPU.
Founded in late 2023 by Fred Pinczuk and Darlene Barbee, Ecogenesis Biopolymers is the official 3D printing market distributor of Soleic TPU materials made by a company called Algenesis Labs. Pinczuk told All3DP that the new filament is made from 99% Soleic TPU with “minerals such as calcium carbonate and food-grade plant oils at less than 1%. The balance of the materials are from Algenesis.”
California-based Algenesis Labs is a materials science company founded in 2016 with a “vision to help the planet recover from the pollution caused by petroleum-based products.” What began as a lab concept from a group of chemists, Stephen Mayfield, Robert Pomeroy, and Michael Burkart, grew into a materials business. With the backing of investors, the company launched its first proof-of-concept to show that its bio-based TPU — from algae and other plant oils that mimic petroleum plastics in performance — could actually work as a product. Its Blueview Shoe in 2022 showed that Soleic could be manufactured into a functional shoe sole that could stand up to daily use and still biodegrade (without creating microplastics) at the end of its lifetime.
What Does The Science Say
Algenesis has about 20 peer-reviewed scientific journal articles posted on its site, dating back several years and covering a wide range of investigations into bio-based TPU materials. One study found that bio-based polyester polyurethane foam (a foam form of Soleic), when submerged in the ocean, showed signs that natural marine bacteria and fungi could chemically break down the material with no engineered processing required.
Another study showed that a specific bio-based TPU material, when shredded and mixed with compost incubated at 45 °C, had 27% biodegradation after six months. This temperature may be high for typical backyard compost, but Mayfield told All3DP home compost piles in San Diego can maintain that temperature.
The prospects for this bio-based flexible material are exciting. There’s the potential to eliminate significant amounts of microplastics from entering the environment via footwear alone, which could be a sustainability game-changer in the nascent 3D printing shoe industry. Soleic is also available as an injection molding material, but has seen limited market uptake.
Handle With Care
Yet, as a 3D printing filament, genTPU should be viewed much like PLA, which is also bio-based, in that proper end-of-life care is the critical step in its sustainability promise.
PLA is far more sustainable than fossil-fuel alternatives, like ABS and PETG, but the vast amount of products 3D printed with PLA end up in landfills, where they will not degrade in any meaningful way since they require industrial processing. PLA’s eco-friendly profile is commonly overstated. It is “biodegradable” only at composting facilities.
Soleic, on the other hand, has a lower biodegradable threshold, incubated at 45 °C or put in a microorganism-rich ocean environment. So while your 3D printed parts and byproducts like supports and failed prints, likely will biodegrade far more than PLA in that landfill, the more responsible route is to bring them to an industrial compost facility or shred them for inclusion in your own compost — as long as it gets hot enough for long enough.
This distinction is echoed in Algenesis’ own research, which emphasizes that bio TPU’s environmental benefits depend heavily on how it is handled at the end of life:
“… ocean biodegradation samples, suggesting that these PU foam would undergo biodegradation in a natural ocean environment by enzymatic depolymerization of the PU foams and eventually uptake of the degradation products into biomass by marine microorganisms, should these foams unintentionally end up in the marine environment as many plastics do.”
Bottom line: Is Ecogenesis’ new genTPU a potential breakthrough in sustainable additive manufacturing? Seems so. Should you toss your genTPU flip-flops in the ocean? Definitely not.
In fact, Ecogenesis BioTPU isn’t the company’s first sustainability-focused filament. It launched a PHA filament (similar to PLA) that it says offers a unique “safety net” as a material that is biocompatible, biodegradable, and non-ecotoxic. “While we do not advocate careless disposal,” the company says on its website, “whether it be tossing waste from a moving car or casting it into the ocean, PHA provides the ultimate fallback in the event of mismanagement. If lost in the environment, it degrades through natural microbial processes, returning to the ecosystem without harm.”
Ecogenesis says composting its PHA in your backyard should take “2 or 3 seasons, depending on the location and health of the composting bed,” before it is fully reabsorbed. There is no guidance yet on how long the genTPU filament will take.
GenTPU filament is manufactured in the USA and is available in 95A and 60D Shore hardnesses for FDM 3D printing (1.75 mm). The company will be announcing distributor partnership (and pricing) in Q1 2026, with EU availability planned for Summer 2026. While the price of genTPU has not been released, Soleic in pellet form is sold for $17 per kilo.
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