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Corn-Based Plastic
SolemnDragon writes "CNN.com is offering up an article about the new corn-based plastic-like product being used at Wild Oats Natural Markets. The product looks like plastic, works like plastic... and then turns into compost. Dubbed the 'corn-tainer,' it's being used to serve foods, etc. Available only in the Pacific Northwest stores (of course) or you can make your own at home. And here's more info on Bio-plastic from MSU." Our older story.
I wish we were as forward looking on legal products from hemp, which I would also consider a good thing.
(Not a troll promoting or encouraging illegal drug use.)
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
Bio degradable better for the environment blah blah blah.
Nobody's going to use it except in a few niche markets unless it's cheaper to mass-produce than good ol' synthetic plastic. That will take a long time to achieve.
Actually, even if it did replace plastic, I'm not sure it would be better for the environment. Now you need to mass-mass produce corn. Agricultural run-off can be pretty destructive, too, not to mention the effects of irrigation on natural waterways. TANSTAAFL.
We don't have a state-run media we have a media-run state.
Since glass is just melted sand, couldnt glass just be ground up into fine sand?
We have natural resources like corn, tapioca (which can also be used to make plastic bags), and even banana fibre, which can't be pulped down but can be made into superstrong paper and card, yet we create still plastics which don't biodegrade and cause harm to the environment....
Disney uses a product like this at all of their theme parks. When you get "plastic" utensils at a restaraunt in the park, it's actually this stuff.
:)
Great for the environment considering how much garbage Disney generates.
Feel free to interpret that last statement any way you wish
What if such chemical were.. say.. methane? Naturally occuring, and is already ever-present in landfills.
Informatus Technologicus
In actual 'energy' usage, ethanol does require more energy to create than it offers. A lot of that energy comes from the sun, though, instead of from limited resources. Think of it as a way to convert sunlight and any random heat source around 200Â F into automotive fuel. In that regard, I'm pretty sure it's even more efficient to produce than hydrogen that is electrically 'cracked'.
Another benefit of ethanol is that it is a clean, safe liquid fuel that is completely compatible with existing combustion engines.
"I assumed blithely that there were no elves out there in the darkness"
You can even get the heat for distilling the alcohol from burning plant matter, which makes absolutely no contribution to climate change {for reasons that your O-level chemistry teacher explained in the 3rd year}. And you only need to heat it to 78.5 degrees, unlike many fuel-from-other-stuff jobs. Theoretically you could use an alcohol still as part of the cooling system from another high-temperature industrial process!
Je fume. Tu fumes. Nous fûmes!
Hmm ..... but why have disposable cutlery at all?
..... or learn to eat without it ..... As long as people were made aware of it from day one, why should it be a problem? You could always sell reusable metal cutlery and plastic or metal plates within the festival.
..... when you've eaten the food inside it, you can eat the container! Now that is cool.
Just have the catering stalls not supply any, and rely on the customers to bring their own metal cutlery
Think: disposable bad, biodegradable not so bad, recyclable good, reusable better.
Legend has it the ice cream cone was invented when someone ran out of containers and spoons - they were originally made of some unleaded bread type thing, if I remember correctly. The ultimate in biodegradable packaging
Je fume. Tu fumes. Nous fûmes!
Sometimes biodegradable is preferable, especially in locations where water is not in abundance and where other issues take precedence, ike some cleaning agents in the water. Certainly some are not harmful, but unless you pass laws then there will still be people who buy the cheapest detergents and not the most environmentally friendly.
It's also been noted, in certain locales and for certain materials, that recycling is WORSE than biodegradable and simply disposable... sometimes the process makes a bigger mess than just leaving it. That's not to say this will always be the case, but it is now.
Unfortunately true environmentalists (like myself) have trouble convincing extreme environmentalists that sometimes they are actually working contrary to goal of having a clean planet - they have a kneejerk reaction to everything without considering the real long term effects.
There are no generic statements about recycling and reuse that apply to everything, everywhere.
I have seen this plastic corn based material before, and I think it's a GREAT approach to our disposable lifestyles. While I agree with you in principle (I really dislike disposable plastics, like pens and razors, for example, but I don't have a problem with the plastic being used for durable goods - like car dashboards or computer components), we have to take the world for what it is today and massage things in a way that people aren't inconvenienced. If things become even the least bit harder, a large number of people will not accept it. People are generally lazy, it's a sad fact. Not everyone, not all the time, but often enough.
Stupid sexy Flanders.
Yea, I want to go to a big, crazy rock concert where everyone there is basically REQUIRED to carry metal cutlery...
I live right across the street from Nature's(a wild oats market) here in Portland, OR.
These containers started showing up in the last month or so, but only on COLD products. Anything served hot in their deli cases comes in good old fashioned plastic or lined cardboard. The containers don't seem to melt to easily in hot water so I assume that it would take a bit of time and heat to start the decomposition process. And mind you that while they are compostable, I'm not taking them out back to the heap and just tossing them in... it still goes in the garbage just like everything else.
It's a start, but we definitely could use some more progress in this arena. The day I can walk over there and buy some of their yummy roast chicken with mac&cheese, and have the container be completely eco-friendly... well, is the day i have to start figuring out what to do with all these old computer parts lying around!