Plastic made from food: Is it a good idea?

Previously, food was used for a single human purpose: Eating and digesting. Today, food is being studied to play a much more complex role.

Scientists, manufacturers and policy makers are discovering and hope that food will one day be able to eliminate human dependence on oil resources. are increasingly scarce. In fact, some food fuels like ethanol and biodiesel are slowly replacing gas and diesel in our lives. Currently, some scientists believe that, instead of using more than 900,000 barrels of oil and natural gas annually to produce plastic in the United States, we can completely use and develop food like a "special" plastic industry .

The benefits of food plastic

According to Science Howstuffworks, food plastics can be made from many natural ingredients : corn, sugarcane, etc. This product has grown very fast and popular in recent years. Shopping bags, gift cards, phone cases - all of which can be made from natural, very environmentally friendly fuel sources. Along with the increasing quality of food plastics, they will have a wider and deeper application to the daily life of people.

An employee with plastic boxes made from food at Wilkinson manufacturing company in Fort Calhoun, Neb.(Photo source: AP Photo / Nati Harnik).

Researchers believe that food plastics have two outstanding benefits compared to petroleum-based plastics.First , they are made from renewable materials. As long as the farmers still work hard to plant trees every day, food plastics will still be created, and this industry will still survive. Second , food plastic is more environmentally friendly. Specifically, they require less energy to produce than traditional plastics and emit less harmful gas during the manufacturing process. Even better, in ideal conditions, they will decompose into harmless organic components to the environment.

And limitations

However, they have some limitations. The first drawback is that they have a relatively low melting point. Conventional plastic materials such as polyethylene terephthalate (PET) have a melting point of about 204 degrees Celsius. Meanwhile, some food-based plastics can " transform" into puddles just because they are forgotten in car on a sunny day. Another example: polylactic acid (PLA) - the corn-based plastic used by the giant retailer Wal-Mart - only has a melting point of about 46 degrees Celsius. application in the present life of people.

Moreover, food plastics may not be as environmentally friendly as we think. Although they are biodegradable, they only decompose into safe organic compounds under ideal conditions (this condition is usually only available in industrial composting plants). This means that you can't throw away the plastic food indiscriminately in the garden and hope that they will decompose into good organic matter for the soil. And if they are dumped into a common landfill, they also decompose slowly like other normal plastics. Although food plastics are recyclable, they are difficult to mix or mix with other recycled plastics. In fact, the recycling industry considers food plastics as a "pollutant" and takes time and money to process this substance.

Another debate about the limitations of food plastics relates to the problem of resources and land to be able to produce food. Recently, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) estimates that by 2014, nearly a quarter of the grain output will be used to produce ethanol and other biomass sources. If the food plastic manufacturing industry thrives, this rate may even rise even higher. Environmentalists are also concerned about the toxic effects of pesticides and genetically modified plants if they are used to make food plastics.

In fact, the recycling industry considers food plastics as a "pollutant", taking time to process this substance.

Epilogue

However, do not give up the great idea about this food plastic. Although they only account for a very small amount (1%) in the current plastic market, some large global companies have pledged to improve and use the new plastic.

Electronic manufacturers Panasonic and NEC have both announced the development of food plastics with marked improvement in durability, heat resistance and convenience, ease of production compared to other products. Other common plastic products on the market. Metabolix - another bioplastic producer - developed a plastic called Mirel that is biodegradable.

The cost of producing food plastic is also decreasing. The practical applications of this special plastic material are also increasing significantly. And that is why they become potential substitutes for conventional traditional plastic materials. And if one day we humans are completely depleted of oil resources, bioplastics will be our primary source of raw material in our daily lives.