The Greening of Plastics  

This sounds almost too good to be true - TreeHugger reports on a company making bioengineered, non-oil based plastic.

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.

Metabolix produces a wide variety of bioplastics through the fermentation of natural sugars and oils using microbial biofactories. These materials range in properties from stiff thermoplastics suitable for molded goods, to highly elastic grades, to grades suitable for adhesives and coatings. In some cases, bioplastics offer combinations of properties not available in synthetic materials. For example, bioplastics, excellent water resistance with biodegradability, allowing flushable personal hygiene products and wet wipes. In the future, bioplastics will be produced directly in plants, making them cost-competitive with even general purpose resins such as polyethylene. PHAs will serve as environmentally friendly alternatives to over half of the plastics used today.