What's Next for 'The Next Generation of Plastic'?
Plant-based packaging, designed to serve the same function as traditional plastics is being celebrated as a means of substituting petroleum as the central ingredient in creating plastic. Since their debut at the U.N. Copenhagen Climate Conference in 2009, an excess of 2.5 billion of these plant infused bottles have been and continue to be circulated world-wide. The Plant Bottle, a product of the Coca-Cola Co. is created by fermenting ethanol from Brazilian sugar-cane. This is the same method employed in creating the earlier plastics that posed less of a threat to the environment.
The most recent developments are as could be expected, more advanced in their design, specifically engineered to hold carbonation where earlier prototypes allowed it to escape through cell walls. Still, this is only the beginning for plant based plastics or biopolymers described as "the next generation of plastic" by Marc Verbruggen the president and CEO of Nature Works. Eventually, the goal is to create even more eco-friendly versions of the bottle derived from plant waste like the cellulose in the leaves and stems of sugarcane.
The necessity of maximizing production efficiency will continue to grow as plant-based plastics become standard. Currently, they inhabit roughly one percent of the total market and have saved an estimated 70,000 barrels of oil. This figure is impressive from a fossil fuel saving stand-point but the other side of production still needs improvement.
On a long enough timeline, the application of the sugar-cane to plastic production could have an effect on the food supply, but that moment is considerably down the road. Until then, alternatives are being explored. Frederic Scheer and his company Cereplast (CERP), for instance intends to introduce an algae-based bioplastic to the market by the close of this year, thereby distributing the environmental impact of current starch-based biopolymers. Cereplast already successfully markets a traditional bioplastic but recognizes the need for options that will help detract from the effect on food supply.
"You cannot have access to farmland without creating pressures on the food system," he says. Still if companies engage in effective product research and explore a variety of alternative plastics it will still be less detrimental to the environment and present resources than traditional plastics. Scheer makes a point of noting that in addition to sugar and algae, residue from government-mandated production of corn-based ethanol can also be employed in plant-based plastic production.
With all the options, "it makes no sense," he says of the current status quo. "It takes 77 million years to make fossil fuels and 45 minutes to use as a coffee cup."
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