Hand with Foam (IMAGE) University of Minnesota Caption One success story of the Center for Sustainable Polymers is how researchers used microbial engineering to develop an inexpensive pathway to sustainably make commercially viable flexible foams usable in everyday items like chair seats and pillows. They also demonstrated that the foam could be chemically recycled back to its starting material. Credit John Beumer, University of Minnesota Usage Restrictions with proper credit to the photographer and university License Licensed content Disclaimer: AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert system.