A Peoria company is a finalist for a major environmental prize from British royalty.
Natural Fiber Welding could receive 1 million British pounds from Prince William's Earthshot Prize. The company is a finalist for the prize.
Luke Haverhals is CEO of the company, which creates natural alternatives to plastics.
"So we can build recipes that work all over the world, and that replace oil and petrochemicals as inputs to your shoes, and instead use agriculture and and byproducts of agriculture as inputs to your shoes," Haverhals said.
Haverhals says plastic not only creates waste, but also microplastics that can enter the body through food and water.
"There's all kinds of issues with plastics causing human health harm, and NFW is literally being named as the scalable solution to that problem," he said.
Earthshot Prize winners will be announced in November.
