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Science Technology

Plastic Made From Corn 46

Posted by michael from the partially-hydrogenated dept.
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."
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Plastic Made From Corn More

Plastic Made From Corn

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  • Eat my hat. (Score:3, Funny)

    by DeadSea ( 69598 ) on Tuesday May 07, 2002 @01:19PM (#3478185) Homepage Journal
    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.
  • Anything that lessens our dependency on oil is a win for everyone. I long for the day we can stop worrying about what the middle eastern countries think.
    • While I agree it's a good thing to not be dependant, don't we traditionally think of food as more essential than plastic. Sure most people around here get enough to eat, but what about Africa and whatnot? Oh well. I personally don't care but I know plenty of people do.
      • 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.
      • While I agree it's a good thing to not be dependant, don't we traditionally think of food as more essential than plastic. Sure most people around here get enough to eat, but what about Africa and whatnot? Oh well. I personally don't care but I know plenty of people do.

        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.


    • 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)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Would it be proper to scream "Cornholio!!!" when you find a hole punched through a corn-based plastic container?
  • Starlink [starlinkcorn.com].
    Since we can't eat [lycos.com] the stuff [cdc.gov], why not package our food in it?

  • Easily incorporated (Score:4, Informative)

    by n-baxley ( 103975 ) <nate@NosPAm.baxleys.org> on Tuesday May 07, 2002 @02:02PM (#3478494) Homepage Journal
    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 [farmprogress.com] 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.

  • Good (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Deanasc ( 201050 ) on Tuesday May 07, 2002 @02:06PM (#3478518) Homepage Journal
    Because what we need in this country is to practice more monoculture with corn.
    • While the process is far from perfect, monoculture with corn is still better for the planet then the petroleum industry, even if corn monoculture depends on petroleum-based fertilizers & pesticides.

      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.

      • I wonder if they could genetically engineer some corn, that would be more efficient to grow than standard corn, thereby even further reducing waste production. I'm sure people would be more open to genetically engineered corn that wouldn't be eaten, as opposed to the edible kind.

        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.

    • The US already lost 60% [ucsusa.org] of it's corn (maize) crop in the early 1970's, That lesson was learned,at least for a short while.

      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)

    by LordNimon ( 85072 ) on Tuesday May 07, 2002 @02:08PM (#3478530)
    "Would you rather buy a product made from corn from the Midwest or petroleum from the Middle East?"

    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.

    • "Would you rather buy a product made from corn from the Midwest or petroleum from the Middle East?"

      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.)

    • 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.

      • There's also all the natural gas that's used to boil the ethanol out of the fermented corn mash. It doesn't just evaporate on it's own. I live within 30 miles of 3 ethanol plants and I can tell you, the pipes supplying natural gas to them are BIG and the regulator stations are screaming with the amount of flow going through them.

        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.
    • Don't forget the $115B farm subsidy the US Gooberment just finagled (stole) from your pocket!

  • This isn't totally new.... (Score:4, Interesting)

    by walt-sjc ( 145127 ) on Tuesday May 07, 2002 @02:22PM (#3478618)
    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 :-)

  • An extra economic benefit (Score:3, Insightful)

    by eugene ts wong ( 231154 ) on Tuesday May 07, 2002 @02:47PM (#3478785) Homepage Journal
    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.
  • But better would be working from a plants which require less chemical (read cash) inputs than corn.

    These plants are called weeds.

    Isn't Nebraska awash in feral hemp?

    • (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.
      • You don't have to legalize marijuana to start using more and more hemp products. You can find legal hemp products all over the place. Nor did he ever say anything about legalizing marijuana for the purpose of getting high.
        Take your ignorant crap elsewhere.

        NORML however, is not doing a good job for the legalization front.
        • "Nor did he ever say anything about legalizing marijuana for the purpose of getting high."

          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)

            by Eccles ( 932 )
            Just Say No to talking point pothead rhetoric.

            ...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)

    by Telecommando ( 513768 ) on Tuesday May 07, 2002 @03:23PM (#3478994)
    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!

  • dislexic today... (Score:4, Funny)

    by bpowell423 ( 208542 ) on Tuesday May 07, 2002 @03:23PM (#3478996)
    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.
  • ... Where everything is made from corn.
  • when ur using it for salad or sandwichs .. you don't really want it to degrad. brings a whole different twist to a tuna ans sweetcorn sandwich :)

  • 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.
  • Potato starch is also used, look here [edu.pe.ca]

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