From Guest Blogger Brooke Chaplan: Four Ways to Manufacture More Earth-Friendly Plastic

There is no question that conventional plastics are one of the major sources of pollution on Earth. Plastic derived from petroleum is fought with environmental problems, and companies are increasingly looking for greener alternatives to plastic. While some environmentalists argue that we go back in time and use more metal or glass instead of plastic, the world is far too plastic-focused to ever do that in a large scale. The better option has become to create plastics from alternative sources that help the environment rather than harm it.

The Problems with Conventional Plastic

All conventional plastic is derived from petroleum. It is dependent on the supply of oil, and it is a massive driver of oil demand in the United States. The Smithsonian estimated in 2006 that plastic production consumed 200,000 barrels of oil each day. That number has only increased since then. Producing plastic from oil also requires a great deal of energy, including the cost of transporting the oil and refining it. Some companies, like Productive Plastics, know that conventional plastic is also one of the least environmentally-friendly materials humans have ever created. The material is extremely durable and resistant to basically all forms of corrosion. It doesn’t rot or rust. While this makes it very useful, it also poses huge problems for nature. Plastic is a material nature doesn’t really know what to do with. As a result, it increasingly clogs landfills and harms wildlife. Finally, conventional plastic is heavy with harmful chemicals. While food-grade plastics are considered safe, they still have the potential to leech harmful chemicals into food, especially when they are heated. This is a major concern since the most common container for microwave foods is plastic.

Bioplastics from Plant Sources

Bioplastics have actually been around for quite some time. They were produced in small scale and used mostly by smaller businesses. Bioplastics are produced from plant sources. Any starchy vegetable will work well as a bioplastic material. The most common plants used are corn, sugarcane, beets and potatoes. Many of these plants, especially corn and sugarcane, are already mass-produced and easy to obtain. Creating bioplastics involves breaking the starchy matter down using a lactic acid process into a polymer known as polylactic acid or PLA. The PLA comes out in small pellets or balls that can be placed in a plastic fabricator and shaped into a wide variety of materials. The most common use for PLA currently is in food-related products such as packaging, drinking straws or cups. It does not contain the harsh chemicals found in petroleum plastics, it is fully renewable and it is also compostable since it will break down in landfills under normal conditions.

Bioplastics from Methane

A more recent innovation in environmentally friendly plastics has been to harvest methane or natural gas and turn that gas into physical plastic. The carbon is stripped from the methane molecules and formed into polymer chains that appear like strips of spaghetti. The chains can then be cut into pellets and reshaped as with all other plastics. There are many advantages to this type of plastic over and above even other bioplastics. The greatest advantage is that this plastic can be produced entirely from waste material. Instead of growing corn or sugarcane for use in plastic, the methane can be harvested from landfills and sewage plants. The breakdown of organic materials at these places produces a tremendous volume of methane that is usually just lost to the atmosphere. Harvesting this methane and trapping it in a plastic polymer has the added advantage of reducing greenhouse gas.

Problems with Bioplastics

While bioplastics may certainly be the plastics of the future, they are not without their problems. A key problem is cost. So long as oil prices remain relatively low, the cost of producing bioplastics is still much higher than producing conventional plastic. Bioplastic from plant sources has also come under fire because it is consuming what could otherwise be turned into food. The argument is that food crops should be used only as food and that turning those crops to other uses could raise the cost of food for everyone. Finally, most bioplastics are not quite as useful as conventional plastic. They have a much lower melting point, which means they may not be useful as packing for microwave food or used in certain electronics that generate a lot of heat.

The future of environmentally friendly plastics is bright. There is no question that eventually alternatives to oil-based plastic will need to be discovered. Environmental pressures are sure to expand the demand for and research of bioplastics and create completely sustainable alternates to this everyday material.