Next time you find yourself elbows deep at a crab boil covered in Old Bay seasoning and armed to the teeth with a lobster cracker, you might want to think about saving those discarded shells.

Jeffrey Catchmark, a professor of agricultural and biological engineering at Pennsylvania State University’s College of Agricultural Sciences, may have cracked the code when it comes to plastic alternatives and it’s found in the exoskeletons of crustaceans. Best of all, it’s compostable and could potentially be a game-changing material for eco-conscious packaging designers.

Catchmark and his team have developed a coating that is made from treated cellulose (wood pulp) and chitosan, which is extracted from chitin. These two materials essentially lock together and create an impenetrable film.