The Greening of Plastics
by TreeHugger on 04.14.05
The Cambridge Massachusetts based company Metabolix produces a sustainable, biodegradable, high-grade, environmentally friendly plastic. Yes, I too have heard the rumors of how biodegradable plastics just don’t hold up to more traditional oil based products, but not in this case. With partners like BP and a long line of grants at their doorstep, the privately held company appears poised to make a large dent in the market. Their ‘bioplastic’ is produced through clever bioengineering (developed at M.I.T), and a good grasp of plastics chemistry. Metabolix bioplastic are polyhydroxyalkanoates or PHA’s. If you’re a chemistry fan- then well …I don’t know what to say to you, but their website has a wonderful basic overview of the biology and chemistry behind the products that even I can understand. I think the well laid out educational material comes from their M.I.T. heritage. At any rate, the end result is that they can produce a wide range of plastic types, from pressure sensitive adhesives to thermoplastics, in a sustainable fashion. The company is looking for business opportunities and is hoping to expand into the marketplace as an environmentally sustainable solution to traditional plastics manufacturing. ::Metabolix [by T. McGee]
This is the one item I was concerned about. There were a lot of different energy sources to replace oil, but petrochemicals are needed for plastics which surround me. Now that they can be produced sustainably using bacteria or plants we've taken one more step toward a fossil-free society.
Getting a foothold for a new material always comes down to a combination of superior performance in a popular application and competitive pricing. THe latter will likely hinge on the relative MegaJoules/Kg product. THe unseen dimension is getting existing blowmolding, injection, and milling equipment to work with it.