Plant Plastic Made From Waste Stronger And More Sustainable Than Corn-Based Plastics

treehugger.com:

One of the major sticking points for making plastics from plants such as corn is that it takes a lot of fossil fuel and resources to grow a crop, just to turn it into plastic that is still difficult to recycle. The pros of plant-based plastics don't really out-weigh the cons. But what if bioplastic could be made from plant waste that is on hand anyway?

Read the whole story: treehugger.com

Comments

[BasilBanana]

09:35 PM on 08/26/2010

On an episode of the Leonard Lopate show a few years ago, a chemist claimed that the original plastics were actually made from plant matter and were designed to be recycled...but then the petro-chemical plastics become SO cheap to make, the interest in recycling vanished...

China passed a law a few years ago that potted plants need to be sold in pots made from organic plastics because the number of plastic pots in their land fills were so overwhelming.

[Tulka2]

03:59 PM on 08/26/2010

....or what if plastic type products are made of a plant that takes almost no fossil fuel to grow? To whit: hemp. Many old piano keys are made of Bakelite plastic made of wood pulp.... i think? The world was better without a lot of plastic. Save petroleum for the future.

[tacevad]

02:55 PM on 08/26/2010

green tech at work, the World needs these kind of ideas.