![Science Science](http://a.fsdn.com/sd/topics/science_64.png)
![Technology Technology](http://a.fsdn.com/sd/topics/technology_64.png)
Plastic Made From Corn 46
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."
Re:Don't eat the plastic! (Score:1)
Only 4.5 shopping days left 'til Yak Shaving Day!
Eat my hat. (Score:3, Funny)
Lessen our dependency on oil (Score:1)
Re:Lessen our dependency on oil (Score:2)
Re:Lessen our dependency on oil (Score:2)
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.
Re:Lessen our dependency on oil (Score:1)
Re:Lessen our dependency on oil (Score:2)
Re:Lessen our dependency on oil (Score:1)
True enough, though in the article they mentioned switching from corn to the byproducts of agricultre. Corn stalks, wheat chaff, and the like. This would be great, not only are we moving towards the day where we can tell the middle east to blow itself back into the stone age, but we are also finding a good way to get rid of what we currently view as trash.
Re:Lessen our dependency on oil (Score:2)
LOL! Yeah, right. Let's see: We'll make fertilizer from natural gas [tfi.org], 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.
So... (Score:2, Funny)
Re:So... (Score:1)
They finally found a use for (Score:2, Funny)
Since we can't eat [lycos.com] the stuff [cdc.gov], why not package our food in it?
Easily incorporated (Score:4, Informative)
Good (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Good (Score:2)
The amount of waste produced by the plastics industry is far greater then the amount of waste produced by the corn industry. And at least the corn, and petrol-based chemicals won't remain in the environment for more then a centry, but that plastic Dixy Cup will sit there for thousands of years.
Re:Good (Score:2)
BTW, if IIRC, Dixie Cups are paper cups with a little bit of wax on em, not plastic. I could be wrong, and I know you were making a point rather than being specific about a product, but for some reason I loved those tiny little Dixie cups, AND I DEMAND SATISFACTION. sorry.
Monoculture lesson taught to U.S. in the 1970's (Score:1)
Cloning versus sexual reproduction initially favors the clones, then are eventually no longer suited to the environment, preditors, or disease. It's a given and any planing, economic, or otherwise must take this into consideration or lose big time. You even see it in several animals like some species of fish and snails, perhaps others. But with the animals, especially, disease usually wipes out most of the clones.
Corporations may lose out, but the rise of interest among the general population in "heirloom" produce is an indication that geneticly diverse crops are not gone yet. Unfortunately, a by product of genetically modified crops is often a very inbred gene pool because not enough generations have gone by to ensure wide genetic diversity.
With the corn, if it's made a priority, it's quite possible to maintain high yields and a varied gene pool. However, it's still corn. I'm sure other crops can be used for plastic using similar proceses. There's probably quite a few tons of cellulose in the stalks and chaff left over from a nation's yearly wheat, oat, rice or barley harvest.
Marketing genius (Score:3, Insightful)
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.
Re:Marketing genius (Score:2)
Yeah, somehow that sounds a lot better than: "Would you rather the corporate farms finished their conquest of the Midwest or shall we fight more wars in the Middle East for the oil corporations?"
(Not that it's really an either/or, of course.)
Re:Marketing genius (Score:2)
Yes, yes. I'm used to sound bites like this since I live near a rural area. It's as bad as the Iowa caucus preceding presidential elections where all these guys in suits talk about how good ethanol enhanced gasoline would be for the country. Yes it would, but it's not so simple as it sounds.
Where's the follow-up analysis of exactly how much petroleum is used to raise an acre of corn, including natural gas at the electric plant that powers the wells for irrigation, not to mention the amount of energy that is used to produce the pesticides to keep the corn from being eaten before harvest?
Our culture is still addicted to liquid fuel hydrocarbons.
Re:Marketing genius (Score:1)
Funny how none of the economic models for ethanol ever seem to mention that it takes about 3 times as many BTU's of natural gas to produce the methanol than you get from the ethanol itself.
Of course, all this ethanol talk plays well in the farm belt, where the farmers think the price of corn will triple and they'll all get stinking rich.
Probably closer to the truth is that if the price of corn goes up enough, the big ethanol producers (like ADM) will simply buy their own land and grow the corn themselves, bypassing the market.
Or they'll just import cheap corn or ethanol from the third world and shut the domestic farmers out of the market entirely.
Of course they don't have to use corn to make ethanol. Corn is preferred because it's cheap. Ethanol could just as easily be made from sugar cane, sorghum or any sugar-containing fruit crop.
Re:Marketing genius (Score:1)
This isn't totally new.... (Score:4, Interesting)
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
Re:This isn't totally new.... (Score:1, Redundant)
Re:This isn't totally new.... (Score:1)
An extra economic benefit (Score:3, Insightful)
This will provide more compost which could mean richer soils and better crops.
Good as far as it goes.... (Score:1, Offtopic)
These plants are called weeds.
Isn't Nebraska awash in feral hemp?
Rolls Eyes... (Score:2)
(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.
Re:Rolls Eyes... (Score:2)
Take your ignorant crap elsewhere.
NORML however, is not doing a good job for the legalization front.
Re:Rolls Eyes... (Score:2)
Have you ever seen a NORML program on public access cable? They always start off the with about 10-15 minutes on how useful pot^h^h^hhemp is for making swell stuff like sandles and surfer dude shirts. Oh, and BTW, just a footnote, you can smoke it. But for medicinal purposes only. Heh. Like fatigue. Or stress, hyperactivity, appetite loss, shitty day on the job, depression because she didn't give you her number, dealing with your parent's harshness, and just about any bullshit reason you can get a California doctor to write a perscription.
Just Say No to talking point pothead rhetoric.
Re:Rolls Eyes... (Score:2, Funny)
...and drink a beer (or three) like an honest, God-fearing American. It's so much healthier^h^h^h^h^h^h^h^h^safer^h^h^h^h^hum, more American. You know, like a Heineken.
But is is REALLY biodegradable? (Score:3, Informative)
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!
dislexic today... (Score:4, Funny)
Welcome to America (Score:2)
bio degradable is nice but ..... (Score:1)
A word from the Industry (Score:2)
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.
potato starch trays, knives. forks etc. (Score:1)