Manuel Rendon of Timeplast and 4d programmable matter

Meet Manuel Rendon, certified polymer science inventor and CEO of Timeplast, Inc.

My first interview episode of 2025. Manuel joins the ranks of Scott Adams, the late John McAfee and others.

4d matter

In the world of plastics, everything pretty much repels water. But what if you could create a plastic that truly dissolves in water quickly, leaves no forever chemicals, and is programmable? Oh, and it’s already readily available to the public.

This is what Manuel and Timplast have created, and he has the patents and the materials to prove it.

Here are the seven patents for Manuel Rendón with links to their respective pages:

1. US Patent 9181412: Composition for the degradation of plastic
2. US Patent 10954354: Upcycling process for unsorted waste stream
3. US Patent 11639424: Extrusion process of a manufacturing system for plastic
4. US Patent 10967470: Degradable plastic composition
5. US Patent 11390532: Method for manufacturing a plastic product with a reduced environmental impact
6. US Patent 11634782: Process for recycling mixed plastic waste
7. US Patent 11620641: Additive for reducing the environmental impact of plastic products

You can click on each link to view the full patent details.

They’ve created a substance that’s available for those, like me, who are 3d printing technology evangelists. By adjusting the thickness in various ways, you can ‘program’ the object to dissolve on a schedule that you determine.

Imagine water bottles that you toss into a lake, and they completely dissolve. What about a plant waterer that waters on a schedule? Biomedical products? Labels on food containers that degrade and warm of spoilage?

Sometimes when you print a 3d printed object (like my psych charms) it has features that the printer cannot create without the help of a support. Think of a scaffolding holding up an overhang, or the outstretched arms of a statue. You can print the supports in the same plastic, or with special support material (if you are lucky enough to have multiple printing heads. But you then still have to break it away carefully, and then sand out the edges.

But with Timeplast, you just submerse your model in water and only the supports dissolve. There is support material like this already, but it does not dissolve in the same way.

Note that Timeplast’s goal is mass production in traditional ways, but makes the time-mass available to small hobbyists in the form of

Timeplast also produces a device that essentially breaks down anything you put into it (except for mundane commercial plastics—with nothing but water. It is called the Pabyss™ (as in Plastic Abyss). I’m hoping Timeplast will take my suggestion and