Innovation is Never Finished | Camilo Fero | TEDxClevelandStateUniversity

Plastic chemist and sustainability entrepreneur Camilo Ferro looks at how useful inventions can later create lasting problems, using detergents, refrigerants and today's plastics as examples. The talk asks whether changing an invention's beginning can change how it ends. Ferro, founder of Earth 2 Earth and president of RAWS Americas, describes work on a plastics technology meant to remove persistent plastic waste without creating microplastics. This TEDxClevelandStateUniversity talk was independently organized under the TED format.

• Unintended consequences of inventions such as detergents, refrigerants and plastics
• Whether an invention's ending can be changed by changing its beginning
• A plastics technology aimed at eliminating persistent plastic waste without microplastics
• Balancing environmental responsibility with commercial viability

What happens when an invention’s greatest strength becomes its lasting problem? Drawing on his work in sustainability and plastic chemistry, Camilo Ferro explores how we can preserve the benefits of our inventions while addressing their unintended consequences. From detergents and refrigerants to today’s plastics, he asks whether we can change an invention’s ending by changing its beginning and why our responsibility to improve it never ends. Camilo A. Ferro is an entrepreneur and sustainability innovator with more than 15 years of experience developing solutions to plastic waste. He founded Earth 2 Earth, served as vice president of sustainability and innovation at Nature's Source and is president of RAWS Americas. In that role, he is helping bring to market a plastics technology designed to eliminate persistent plastic waste without creating microplastics. Throughout his career, Ferro has focused on advancing sustainability through innovation grounded in scientific research, transparency and practical implementation, with the goal of creating solutions that are both environmentally responsible and commercially viable. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx