When it comes to the world's biggest problems, developing a next-generation, thermally-insulated beverage cup might rank just ahead of the twirling spaghetti fork or the noodle fan. And while designing a lower-cost and higher-quality coffee cup is one of MicroGreen Polymers' higher profile projects, the University of Washington materials science spin out is so much more than that.

And that's one of the reasons why the Arlington, Washington company has attracted a $6.9 million financing round, which included participation from recycling giant Waste Management and local investors such as WRF Capital and Northwest Energy Angels. MicroGreen believes its technology can change the world, transforming everything from building materials to electronics to food packaging.

As was so once famously stated in The Graduate, MicroGreen is all about plastics.

Tom Malone

"We hear that at just about every angel presentation," said MicroGreen CEO Tom Malone, referring to The Graduate reference.

In fact, the company's Ad-air technology is all about reducing the amount of plastic that goes into consumer products. That not only cuts down on the costs of packaging, but creates a more environmentally-friendly product in the process. It does this by injecting tiny bubbles into recycled soda pop and water bottles, transforming the microcellular structure of the plastics in order to create products that are stronger, lighter weight and more insulating.

In development for the past eight years, MicroGreen is gearing up to start commercializing its Ad-air technology in recycled plastic sheets later this year. It is also pushing forward with its own product, the next-generation coffee cup which should be on the market later this year.

Malone said it is an exciting time at the company, transforming from an R&D startup to one with a product on the market.

It was not easy moving from a "beaker scale" in a UW lab to "running thousands of pounds of plastic at a time," Malone said.

"Now that we've accomplished learning how to scale it, we are ready to go full tilt," he said.

As part of that effort, the company is boosting its sales, marketing, production and engineering staff. The 21-person company has already tripled in size in the past year, and it expects to hire another 12 workers in the next six months or so.

MicroGreen plans to focus its initial sales efforts on the food service industry, coffee cups, food trays and other plastic products. That market alone is said to represent over $16 billion by 2015.

In order to get there, MicroGreen has landed a good partner. Waste Mangement is one of North America's largest processors of recycled materials, including the PET plastics found in beverage bottles that are used in the MicroGreen Ad-air process.

"This could create more value from the materials we recover at our recycling facilities every day," said Pat DeReuda, president of Waste Management Recycling in a statement.

Malone noted that Waste Management's involvement as an investor and supplier of PET is a huge win. "It is extremely exciting. There was a real mind meld with their investment group and product group," said Malone.

MicroGreen was started at the University of Washington after co-founder Krishna Nadella and other researchers won second place the university's business plan competition. Total funding in the company now stands at $9.3 million.

Related: "A UW spin-out success story: Krishna Nadella of MicroGreen"

MicroGreen says its Ad-air technology uses as little as 20 percent of the recycled source material to create durable consumer products.