Self-testing made sustainable using this fully biodegradable rapid test kit

Constantly looking for innovative solutions where environmental and human health can go hand in hand, Mexico-based Luis Fernando Sanchez Barrios introduces ‘Gelassette’ – a sustainable biodegradable alternative for lateral flow assays to test COVID-19 or any other single use testing.

Creatively designed in collaboration with Daniel López Velasco, it brilliantly aims to solve medical waste control worldwide in a feasible as well as an affordable manner.

“Being in the era of a health crisis, the international waste management association estimates that throw-away plastic has increased up to 300 percent since the start of this pandemic – every single time you do a lateral flow coronavirus test, you throw away around 10g of plastic. 

As COVID-19 will likely be a part of our lives, we should consider how to deal with single-use protective products such as antigen tests and how they are produced” says Barrios.

This one-of-a-kind object derives from the first biodegradable cellulose-based rapid test skillfully crafted by Barrios back in 2020. 

With its prototype further evaluated and improved in terms of design as well as material – an ultimate optimized and minimalistic version, Gelassette, was born. 

Granting soil biodegradability in less than 4 weeks as well as water dispersible in less than 3 hours – it contains no plastic at all.

The positive characteristics of plastics are mimicked by gelatin, a 100% biodegradable material often utilized in medicine.
“Its gelatin composition is further fully biodegradable, so that the lateral flow assay device is plastic-free and environmentally friendly, even when disposed of” Barrios adds.