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Plastic Made From Corn
Dekaner writes "A major supplier of plastic products in the U.S. will soon open a new factory that makes products from corn. The Cargill Dow factory in Blair, Nebraska will convert corn into a biodegradable substance called NatureWorks PLA. It will be used to make soft-drink cups, salad containers and to fill pillows and comforters. The corn-derived polymer will compete directly with products made from petroleum."
If I ever have to eat my hat because I've opened my big mouth at the wrong time, I want my hat to be made of this.
Would it be proper to scream "Cornholio!!!" when you find a hole punched through a corn-based plastic container?
Starlink.
Since we can't eat the stuff, why not package our food in it?
--jdp Maintainer of VisEmacs
I think the biggest advantage that this has over other "Natural" alternatives is that it will be easily converted to by polymer manufacturers. This article talks about how the NatureWorks stuff is delivered to manufacturers. It comes in small plastic pellets that manufacturers are used to handling. There are some adjustments to be made, the article doesn't mention what they are, but the plants will not have to completly retool to begin using this. I suppose that if they could tool their plants in such a way as to use either the NatureWorks or petroleum based pellets, they could play the two technologies off each other and lower the cost of producing things. Not that we'd see any price reduction, but the thought is nice.
THIS SPACE FOR RENT
Because what we need in this country is to practice more monoculture with corn.
I've hit Karma 50 and gotten a Score:5, Troll... I win!
Damn, what a sound bite! He's 100% correct, of course, but it's still amazing what one sentence can do to sway the hearts of people. His timing couldn't be better. I'm feeling patriotic already! Too bad I can't digest corn, or I'd have some tonight.
And the men who hold high places must be the ones who start
To mold a new reality... closer to the heart
They have been making "plastic" grocery bags from processed corn for almost 10 years now. The next time you shop, check the fine print on the bag to see if the bag is biodegradable. And No, it's not the print that talks about how plastic bags can be used as a population control device...
:-)
Ditto about the biodegradable packing peanuts.
IMHO, the more we can use renewable recyclable technologies, the better off we are. I for one would love to see fossil fuels go the way of the dinosaur
Another economic benefit that people may not think about is that grocery stores can throw packaged foods into the compost. At this point in time, they seem to only be able to throw away unpackaged fruits and vegetables. In other words, they aren't going to unpackage something to compost it.
This will provide more compost which could mean richer soils and better crops.
testing out my trending skills
(cue Music) Da Da DA!!!
It's the Return of the Man From N.O.R.M.A.L!!!!
Take you legalization crap somewhere else.
Why wheat? Why not HEMP?!
Hey kids, there's only 5 days left 'til Yak Shaving Day!
I remember many (10?) years ago a company was promoting a corn-based, plastic grocery bag which they said would deteriorate and disolve in a few months when exposed to sunlight and water.
Iowa City Magazine (now defunct) decided to test it and attached one to a post in back of their offices. Each month they published a photo of the bag and reported on it's condition. After a year they decided that apart from some slight tearing of the bag by the wind where it was attached to the post, there was no sign of any deterioration.
None.
On the other hand, I regularly get shipments of equipment packed in biodegradable corn starch 'peanuts' which dissolve rapidly when exposed to water. Easy to dispose of I guess, but more than once I've had UPS drop off a package on my doorstep in the rain and I come home to a box of soggy, goo-encrusted equipment. YUCK!
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When I first read that headline, I read "Corn made from plastic". I had that back in elementary school. :) Plastic made from corn, though... that's cool.
It's been said a million times before, but I'll say it once more. We have enough food to feed the peoples of the world. There are problems with the distribution of the food, an example would be warlords/terrorists/etc taking the food that was meant for civilians. There are other reasons too of course.
WWJD.... for a Klondike bar?
... Where everything is made from corn.
LOL! Yeah, right. Let's see: We'll make fertilizer from natural gas, use it to grow corn, then use the corn to make plastic, thus reducing the demand for oil! Brilliant! This is much better than our previous scheme to use natural-gas-derived fertilizer on corn to make alcohol.
If all this should have a reason, we would be the last to know.
I think at some point we will shift from land-based agriculture to kelp farming, as gross as it may sound. Some types of kelp can grow a foot a day, which is far superior to wheat's foot every two months growth. It could provide an inexhaustible food and fuel resource. While you may not like the idea of kelp being a staple food, it could be genetically enhanced to provide all the nutrients necessary for us. Also, in the future, it may become possible to synthesize whatever food we want from the kelp base.
Gigantic kelp farms could provide us with a limitless supply of methane. Stalks could be cut and shipped to gigantic anaerobic digester plants that could manufacture methane (natural gas) from the kelp very cheaply. Another advantage of kelp farming over conventional land-based farming is that kelp farming poses no environmental problem. Many ocean species, such as sea otters, love kelp forests. Vast expanses of farmland could be turned back to wilderness.
Which brings me to my next crack induced (slightly offtopic) point: I think, ethics permitting, we will have biological "replicants" within the next 30 years. Advances in genetics should make it possible to create humans with no personality or feelings(similar to many lobotomized mental patients), with greater strength and intelligence than us, that could act as slaves to do most of our work. I don't think this is such a big ethical issue that it seems like. If they don't have a human mind, why should they be consedered human? Whether or not that happens, I am almost certain that we will start seeing genetically enhanced babies in the next decade.
If you don't understand any of my sayings, come to me in private and I shall take you in my German mouth.
As an engineer in the plastic injection molding industry, I have one word for you... Cool!
However, I don't see this really taking a hold in what I do. There are so many different types of plastics, and they have many different purposes. What properties does the corn stuff have? What kind of plastics will it replace. Right now, we use Polyproplene (PP) for low cost, low temp, low stress applications. For harsher conditions we move to Nylon 66 (PA66). For even more strength we can get it glass filled. Of course I am sticking only to Semi-crystalline Thermoplastics, because that is all I am familiar with. I am not even going to talk about Amorphous or Termoset plastics. What I am trying to say is that there are so many different types of plastics, I don't know where the corn plastics fit in, or if they would be useful to us. The article didn't give that kind of information.
just a thought.
"...At the end of the day"..."when everyone goes home, you're stuck with yourself." RIP Layne Staley