MATERIALS BIOPLASTIC rom the Stone Age to the Iron Age to the Sleel Age, we bound to one molecules another. Most have a backbone of delineate society's epochs by their primary material tor cat- bon, linked with other elements such as hydrogen, nitrogen, and fabrication. Ours could be called the Age of Plastic. oxygen. We can synthesize polymers, but they also occur natu- Globally, we produce roughly 310 million tons of plastic all rally around and inside us, they are part of every each That is living organ- year. 83 per and ism. the most pounds person, plastic production Cellulose, abundant organic material on is earth, is a expected to quadruple by 2050. The material is everywhere, polymer in the cell walls of plants. Chitin is another abundant from clothing to computers, furniture to football fields, and al- polymer, found in the shells and exoskeletons of crustaceans and most all otf it is petro-plastic, made from fossil fuels. In fact, 5 to 6 insects. tree Potatoes, sugarcane, bark, algae, and all con- percent of the worlds annual oil production becomes feedstock shrimp tain natural polymers that can be converted to for plastic. plastic manufacturing. But the polymers that make up plastic Although petro-plastics now dominate the market, the ma- exist in everywhere nature, not as fossilized and ex- just forms, terial for the earliest plastics was plant cellulose. In the perts estimate that 90 percent of current plastics could be derived nine teenth century, playing billiards was de lor the well-to-do irom rigueur plants or other renewable feedstock instead. Such bio-based in the United States and Europe, and the balls that adorned bil- plastics come from the earth and many can return to it, oiten liard tabies were 100 percent solid ivory. The market was vora- with lower carbon emissions than their fossil fuei-based kin. cious, elepihants were slaughtered by the thousands for their The Greek verb plassein, the root of plastic, means "to oid tusks, each the source for merely a handful of billiard bals. The or What shape." affords plastics their malleability are polymers- trend prompted public outcry, while driving up costs for the bi- substances with chainlike structures, made oi many atons or iards industry. Billiards player and tycoon Michael Phelan issued : chailenge. $10,000 in gold to anyone who could develop an alternative to ivory. The offer prompted printer and tinkerer John Wesiey Hyatl to begin testing possibilities. He developed a sub- stance irom the cellulose in cotton, dubbed "celluloid." Celluloxd turned out to be less than ideal for billiard balls-Hyatt never got the money-but it was just right for products such as combs, hand mirrors, toothbrush handles, and movie flm. Henry Ford also played with the possibilities of bioplastics establishing a significant research and development progra focused on constructing car parts from soybeans. In 1941. rou unveiled his soybean car, but he could not overcome roc bottom fossil fuel prices or the all-consuming focus of Wortd I1. In addition to being the maiden bioplastic, cellulond spat the invention of Bakelite, Leo Baekeland's petroleum-based plas tiC-the hirst of its kind. Along with the emergence of the pet DEARBORN MICH.8-13I94 chemical industry, Bakelite ushered in a petro-polymer expe in the early twentieth century. Suddenly, it was possible to crea products of various sizes and shapes-high in durabilnty, weight-and to do it on the cheap. wete side Like so fossil fuel alternatives, bioplastics many interest. some ined until the oil crisis of the 1970s rekindled rising WIth the advent of green chemistry in the 1990s, alongstc Carnest The first and only bioplastic car was unveiled by Henry Ford in 1941 prices, commercial bioplastic production began i O1 eCipes,pnpCr in Dearborn, Michigan. The car was inspired by the growing shortage locday, a wide variety of bioplastics, with varioUs T of metal due to the war, as well as by the idea of combining industry velopment ties, and applications, are in production or under ae with agriculture. He already had established the Soybean Laboratory in Greenfield Village at the time, and had made the fuel for the car Most are used in packaging of one kind or another, Du Ntiles to pharmaeu from hemp il. The frame was tubular steel, the body was plastic, are hnding their way into every1hing from textiles t Tived, t the windows were acrylic, and it was powered by a conventional icals to electronics. Those that are "bio based are 60-horsepower engine. The finished car weighed 1,000 pounds less bio-based plastucs ma least biomass. However, hugs than its conventional, all-steel counterpart. Though it was created partially, Irom ppung (PE)bioplastes suh a in part to aid the war effort, most car manufacturing ceased for the may not be biodegradable. Polyethylene Sop duration of the war and the bioplastic car was never revived. alde irom sugarcane or corn are not. Bul Dio I DRAWDOWN RANKING AND RESULTS BY 2050 4.3 GIGATONS $19.2 BILLION 47 REDUCED Co2 FIRST COST DATA TOO INDEFINITE TO BE MODELED SACH CHE VÉGE VÉGE OORIRIGINE bioplastic is all dressed Separation and appropriate processing, in a cup, and acid like mighi hnd disposable waste streams except polylactic (PLA), you nowhere to in most municipal are with go can be used for sutures, up polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA), which conditions. into the dump. under the DuPont, Cargil, bio based and biodegradable nght transition is possible: both And a switt in the ocean or yet, be- at temperatures, not in bio-based polymers (PLA degrades only high Mitsui, and BASF are investing continues to Dow, expansion. Research on push home compost bins.) bioplastics believe have a strong plattorm cause they they formulations, and applications. technology-something Lhe bounds of their feedstocks, are a replacement Because bioplastics beneht from and petrochemi- materials-they the sustainable feedstock avoiding in for existing Finding right that can be swapped the same time, biggest cal-intensive agriculture is essential. worldwide. At the demand for plastic fuel-based plas- reduce emis- the fossil can overcome is the to In contrast to petro-plastics, bioplastics bioplastics economies ot challenge for because when teed- low and is true oil are SIons and carbon. This especially When prices beyond sequester tics industry. to compete left over from pulp bioplastics struggle like what is pipelines StOCkS draw on waste biomass, scale are often lacking, benetit of benefits, have the maximize climate also To Petro-plastics realize and or biofuel production. markets. To advan paper niche production. considered-from growing centralized be tor more and bioplastic entire should and tankers lifecycle feedstock production DIOplastics between and decreasing greenhouse distance programs eedstock to end-of-life disposal. Beyond the Bio-prelerred Some tages, do not. be proximate biopolymers benefits petro-plastics has to of Eases, bioplastics offer other manulacturing the growth ideal tor also support bans can such as thermal properties plastic dve lechnical advantages, targeted industry temperatures plastic at low evolution of the Those that are biodegradable and the printing. l0 gron trash crisis, particularly i plastcs jr of 1nis 12y address the world's plastic production 2050 help in the total end up ecosys We cstimate millontons by a third all plastics IMPACT: 792 iy and seas. Currently, of are at least tons eo The rest in 2014 to I billion million tons over recycled. JIl estimating are successfully to 5 percent sources aue ,while just will with other bioplasties trends continue, plastic Oul Conservative, growthof aianlled or burned. If current aggressive of cmiss model the 43 gigatons We comstraineu 2050. Continue. dvoiding welgh fish in the worlds oceans by 2050, is is that they market hy solutin the this land bioplastics Percent highe'r, conie of even adduional the problem facing un- is eThaps biggest composted potenlial without cannot be Wnile lechnical available e are is bulon not entional Bioplastio in the feedstock scenario S19 plastic. biomass pnine will compost im this and few imiled bioplastics higherjUr plastics, curently lesssSeparated Irom other or produce down special cost ae broken Ihe to costs heat to be StOn. financial garden bin. conven- the They high with While requ intermixed ycars. are tnty quickly. Chemical 1If contaminatea, recycling, bioplastics are dropping is MATERIALS plastic ers, they Ional conventional recycled surece plastics, Without and unusable. cdering in unstable, brittle, .