Los Angeles – October 15, 2026 -- TIME has named von Holzhausen's Liquidplant®, a plant-based alternative to petroleum plastics, to its 2026 list of Best Inventions, which features 300 innovations. The company is building a manufacturing facility in Georgia to scale production.
Liquidplant® is built as a drop-in material for existing manufacturing lines
Liquidplant® starts as a plant-based polymer pellet produced through patented green chemistry. Manufacturers can convert it into different forms using existing processes, so it needs no new tooling or production methods.
The material targets conventional performance plastics, including EVA, TPU, PEBA, polyethylene and silicone. Applications range from footwear and wearable technology to injection-molded components.
von Holzhausen is building a Georgia plant to expand domestic capacity
The Georgia facility is intended to expand domestic production capacity and speed up commercialization of Liquidplant®. The source gives no details on the plant's size, investment or timeline.
The company is working with brands in footwear, technology and healthcare to bring the material into real-world applications. It did not name those partners.
Biofermentation replaces conventional plastic chemistry
von Holzhausen says Liquidplant® is engineered from sugars and seeds, with biomolecules obtained primarily through biofermentation, in which microbes convert renewable plant inputs into materials. The company claims performance equal to or better than petroleum-based plastics. It also says the material is non-toxic and can either be recycled back into itself or biodegrade without leaving microplastics. These are company claims, and the source offers no independent test data.
TIME weighed originality, efficacy, ambition and impact
TIME editors and correspondents worldwide submitted nominations, and an online application process was also open. The magazine paid special attention to growing fields such as health care and AI. Each contender was evaluated on originality, efficacy, ambition and impact.