Biodegradable Plastic Emerging 
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http://www.news10.net/news/green/story.aspx?storyid=52452&catid=67
Biodegradable Plastic Emerging
By Ron Barnett, USA TODAYHere is one word about an up-and-coming innovation in plastics: cornfields.Bioplastics - most of which are now made from corn - are poised to grab a bigger share of the plastics market as concerns about the environment and U.S. dependence on foreign oil promote alternatives to products made from petrochemicals.
They already are showing up in a variety of products, such as plastic gift cards, food containers and cellphone casings, says Steve Davies, a spokesman for NatureWorks.
NatureWorks, based in Minnetonka, Minn., developed one of the first plant-based plastics with the creation of a resin technology called Ingeo. Its Ingeo plastic pellets are used to make clothing, diapers and food-packaging material.
After doubling the size of its manufacturing plant in Nebraska, NatureWorks will have the capacity to produce up to 300 million pounds of pellets a year.
Research by NatureWorks, a subsidiary of agribusiness giant Cargill and Teijin of Japan, indicates a future market demand of up to 50 billion pounds of bioplastics a year within two to five years. That would represent about a 10% share of the global plastics market.Among the first companies to turn to biodegradable plastic in a big way is Naturally Iowa, an organic dairy that makes milk and water bottles out of pellets from NatureWorks, says William Horner, Naturally Iowa's CEO.
"This is one of the greatest hidden sources of replacing petroleum that we've got," Horner says.
"The cost of the bottles is 5% to 10% higher than regular plastic bottles, but it's worth it both environmentally and economically in the long run," he says. "When you compare the cost for disposal of plastic to the cost of disposal of a compostable bottle, all of a sudden the cost levels out."
Although the plastic is biodegradable, disposing of it is not necessarily as simple as throwing your bioplastic bottles onto your backyard compost heap, says Betty McLaughlin, executive director of the non-profit Container Recycling Institute.
The basic ingredient of corn-based plastics is polylactide, or PLA. Most PLA has to go to a commercial composting plant to be decomposed, she says. Although PLA can be recycled for use in other products, it can't be recycled along with regular petroleum-based plastics.
"It sounds great," McLaughlin says. "It's renewable, biodegradable and all that kind of stuff. But the practical matter is that you still have to grow the corn to extract the sugar from. And how many pesticides do you need to put into the soil to grow the corn?"
It's an open question, she says, whether it's more energy efficient to use biodegradable plastic or to recycle petroleum-based plastic.
Researchers are finding ways to address some of those problems, though.
Cambridge, Mass.-based Metabolix has developed a brand of biodegradable plastic called Mirel that decomposes in soil, compost or even water, says Brian Igoe, chief brand officer. It's made from genetically engineered microbes that convert corn sugar into polymers in a fermentation process.
Metabolix has engineered a switch-grass crop that actually grows plastic inside its leaves and stems, but that product is still a few years away, Igoe says.
Mirel costs about twice as much as petroleum-based plastic, so the company markets it for such uses as packaging for natural cosmetics, or agricultural mulch film that can be tilled into the soil to eliminate waste and cut costs, Igoe says.
The company has a joint venture with Archer Daniels Midland called Telles, which is building a plant in Iowa that will go into operation next year with the capacity to produce 110 million pounds of Mirel annually, he says.
Researchers at Clemson University in South Carolina have come up with solutions to some of the main technical drawbacks of bioplastics.
For example, molecules such as water can slip through corn-based plastic, which means that the water would evaporate out of such a bottle over time, says Danny Roberts, one of the Clemson scientists who developed a new, stronger type of bioplastic bottle that hit stores recently.
The type of plastic used in the EarthBottles that he and co-inventor David Gangemi developed is also more resistant to heat, which deforms bottles made of 100% corn, he says.
They added some natural ingredients to the mix that retain the biodegradable properties while eliminating the drawbacks, Roberts says. The result is a material that has the potential for use in automotive parts, fabrics and biomedical parts, among other things, he says.
And it's all non-toxic.
"Everything is all food-grade material," he says. "You could grind it up and eat it. It might constipate you, but it wouldn't kill you."
The first company to use EarthBottles is Brevard, N.C.-based Gaia Herbs, a liquid herbal grower and manufacturer that helped finance the Clemson project, Roberts says.
"The original impetus for us was to find a way to save on the cost of freight and the risk of breakage associated with pharmaceutical glass," says Greg Cumberford, vice president of strategic initiatives for the company.
Being a certified organic company, Gaia didn't want to risk any traces of petroleum chemistry mixing with its products by using ordinary plastic bottles, Cumberford says.
EarthBottles also contain natural antioxidants that help protect the product inside, he says.
"The reaction has been overwhelming," says Angela Guerrant, vice president of sales for Gaia who showed the bottles at a trade expo in Boston recently.
"They're shocked that this hasn't been done already."
USA TodayCopyright 2011 / All Rights Reserved
- Re: Biodegradable Plastic Emerging spudlydoo
13 y
4,861
This is a reply to # 1,748,648Safer and totally biodegradable, imagine all those plastic water bottles, and all the packaging that these bio-plastics, could replace. It seems like they can even be composted.
What a brilliant idea.
spud - Re: Biodegradable Plastic Emerging chirontherainbowbridge
13 y
4,889
This is a reply to # 1,748,648Considering corn is on its way to being the biggest GM'd crop in the world, and can not be considered safe,how do you think this fact plays into the notion of "biodegradable plastics" ?
Can one assume/believe any of it is "organic?
Does "organic" even exist anymore, outside the very small confines of say a home garden, and sadder still,
a greenhouse(enclosed)
Honestly, it sounds like another surefire way to poison people, and over time t ( where it's hard to track what caused what)to assure the medical monsters more business.
i know this sounds very 'wet blanket', (and I'm sory Spud) but I have to wonder sometimes. HV, I see you post things, with no comment, and sometimes these things seem like sheer experiments to generate talk: to see if anyone's really awake-- Will they ask a question, disagree, or or will they just accept it, 'lock, stock, and barrel'.- Re: Biodegradable Plastic Emerging spudlydoo
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This is a reply to # 1,749,107Chiron, they are good questions you are asking, and with any science, questioning is welcomed. I think, even if they are using Genetically-Modified crops, they are going to make plastic that will biodegrade, and that is a far better solution than what we now have. At the moment we use petroleum products to make plastics, as well as other polluting and harmful chemicals, these plastics do not degrade, and remain polluting the environment for centuries.
As we are not going to be ingesting these products, and the product will not have the same chemical makeup of the Genetically-Modified crop, I think this could be a very good thing for the environment.
I would much rather see less use of plastics, and more reusable packaging and containers, than just a substitute for plastics, but that will take a big change in the way people think and live, but I will remain optimistic :)
spud - Re: Biodegradable Plastic Emerging Hveragerthi
13 y
4,872
This is a reply to # 1,749,107
Considering corn is on its way to being the biggest GM'd crop in the world, and can not be considered safe,how do you think this fact plays into the notion of "biodegradable plastics" ?
Can one assume/believe any of it is "organic?If composted or otherwise degraded any genes that may have been spliced in to the corn is simple going to degrade with the plastic. The alternative are plastics filling up landfills, being dumped wherever, ending up in our water ways and oceans where they harm wildlife.......
I am curious though. How many people that are so worried about GMO also happen to drive a car? Not only do they have to deal with the smog but also the gases put off by the car's plastics. How many have particle board or carpeting in their homes? Particle board and new carpet padding both put off formaldehyde, one of the most carcinogenic substances known. I could go on with my list, bu the point is that I can think of so many things I would worry about long before whether composing plastics from potential GMO plastics is going to create some frankenworms that are going to come up out of the soil to attack us, or something. This is one of the drawbacks to the internet. With the simplicity of spreading information, true or not, it seems like we have had so many flavors of the month as to what people are going to worry about. At one point it was soy. Then came canola, now it is GMO. Granted some of the stuff may be legit, but too often the scare tactics go way overboard and are frequently filled with misleading or misinformation. I have given lots of examples of this with the soy claims. And have covered some of this with canola, for example the claim that it is used to make mustard gas, which is completely ludicrous.
Corn based plastics are actually made from the starch, not the proteins where any spliced genes would likely be anyway. So even if we consumed these plastics they are unlikely to have the same risks of allergies that have occurred in the past with the 'Starlight" corn, which was removed from the market a while ago. And these plastics are nothing new. Corn based styrofoam substitutes have been around for years. We get them all the time in shipments. Yet I have yet to hear of even one case of an allergy or any other type of reaction to any of these corn based plastics.
Instead of worrying about the possible doom and gloom of new plastics that may or may not be GMO we should be focusing on the fact that industry is FINALLY taking a step in the right direction to help the planet.
-
Re: Biodegradable Plastic Emerging pawel110
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This is a reply to # 1,749,559The Marijuana Conspiracy
The reason hemp is illegal
(Nothing to do with its effects on the mind and body)
By Doug Yurchey- Article from
The Dot Connector
They say marijuana is dangerous. pot is not harmful to the human body or mind. marijuana does not pose a threat to the general public. Marijuana is very much a danger to the oil companies, alcohol, tobacco industries and a large number of chemical corporations. Big businesses, with plenty of dollars and influence, have suppressed the truth from the people. The truth is, if marijuana was utilized for its vast array of commercial products, it would create an industrial atomic bomb! The super rich have conspired to spread misinformation about the plant that, if used properly, would ruin their companies.
Where did the word ‘marijuana’ come from? In the mid 1930s, the M-word was created to tarnish the good image and phenomenal history of the hemp plant – as you will read. The facts cited here, with references, are generally verifiable in the
Encyclopedia Britannicawhich was printed on hemp paper for 150 years:
✔
All schoolbooks were made from hemp or flax paper until the 1880s. (Jack Frazier.
Hemp Paper Reconsidered.1974.)
✔ It was legal to pay taxes with hemp in America from 1631 until the early 1800s. (LA Times. Aug. 12, 1981.)
✔ Refusing to grow hemp in America during the 17th and 18th centuries was against the law! You could be jailed in Virginia for refusing to grow hemp from 1763 to 1769 (G. M. Herdon. Hemp in Colonial Virginia).
✔ George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and other founding fathers grew hemp. (Washington and Jefferson Diaries. Jefferson smuggled hemp seeds from China to France then to America.)
✔ Benjamin Franklin owned one of the first paper mills in America, and it processed hemp. Also, the War of 1812 was fought over hemp. Napoleon wanted to cut off Moscow’s export to England. (Jack Herer. Emperor Wears No Clothes.)✔ For thousands of years, 90% of all ships’ sails and rope were made from hemp. The word ‘canvas’ is Dutch for cannabis. (Webster’s New World Dictionary.)
✔ 80% of all textiles, fabrics, clothes, linen, drapes, bed sheets, etc.,were made from hemp until the 1820s, with the introduction of the cotton gin.
✔ The first Bibles, maps, charts, Betsy Ross’s flag, the first drafts of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were made from hemp. (U.S. Government Archives.)
✔ The first crop grown in many states was hemp. 1850 was a peak year for Kentucky producing 40,000 tons.Hemp was the largest cash crop until the 20th century. (State Archives.)
✔ Oldest known records of hemp farming go back 5000 years in China, although hemp industrialization probably goes back to ancient Egypt.
✔ Rembrandt’s, Van Gogh’s, Gainsborough’s, as well as most early canvas paintings, were principally painted on hemp linen.
✔ In 1916, the U.S. Government predicted that by the 1940s all paper would come from hemp and that no more trees need to be cut down. Government studies report that 1 acre of hemp equals 4.1 acres of trees. Plans were in the works to implement such programs. (U.S. Department of Agriculture Archives.)
✔ Quality paints and varnishes were made from hemp seed oil until 1937. 58,000 tons of hemp seeds were used in America for paint products in 1935. (Sherman Williams Paint Co. testimony before the U.S.Congress against the 1937 Marijuana Tax Act.)
✔ Henry Ford’s first Model-T was built to run on hemp gasoline and the car itself was constructed from hemp! On his large estate, Ford was photographed among his hemp fields. The car, ‘grown from the soil,’ had hemp plastic panels whose impact strength was 10 times stronger than steel. (Popular Mechanics, 1941.)
✔ In 1938, hemp was called ‘Billion Dollar Crop.’ It was the first time a cash crop had a business potential to exceed a billion dollars. (Popular Mechanics, Feb. 1938.)
✔ Mechanical Engineering Magazine (Feb. 1938) published an article entitled ‘The Most Profitable and Desirable Crop that Can be Grown.’ It stated that if hemp was cultivated using 20th century technology, it would be the single largest agricultural crop in the U.S. and the rest of the world.
The following information comes directly from the United States Department of Agriculture’s 1942 14-minute film encouraging and instructing ‘patriotic American farmers’ to grow 350,000 acres of hemp each year for the war effort:
“…[When] Grecian temples were new, hemp was already old in the service of mankind. For thousands of years, even then, this plant had been grown for cordage and cloth in China and elsewhere in the East. For centuries prior to about 1850, all the ships that sailed the western seas were rigged with hempen rope and sails. For the sailor, no less than the hangman, hemp was indispensable… Now with Philippine and East Indian sources of hemp in the hands of the Japanese… American hemp must meet the needs of our Army and Navy as well as of our industries… The Navy’s rapidly dwindling reserves.When that is gone, American hemp will go on duty again; hemp for mooring ships; hemp for tow lines; hemp for tackle and gear; hemp for countless naval uses both on ship and shore. Just as in the days when Old Ironsides sailed the seas victorious
with her hempen shrouds and hempen sails. Hemp for victory!”
Certified proof from the Library of Congress, found by the research of Jack Herer, refutes claims of other government agencies that the 1942 USDA film
‘Hemp for Victory’did not exist.
Hemp cultivation and production do not harm the environment. The USDA Bulletin #404 concluded that hemp produces four times as much pulp with at least four to seven times less pollution.
From
Popular Mechanics, February 1938:
“It has a short growing season… It can be grown in any state… The long roots penetrate and break the soil to leave it in perfect condition for the next year’s crop. The dense shock of leaves, 8 to 12 feet above the ground, chokes out weeds. …Hemp, this new crop can add immeasurably to American agriculture and industry.”In the 1930s, innovations in farm machinery would have caused an industrial revolution when applied to hemp. This single resource could have created millions of new jobs generating thousands of quality products. Hemp, if not made illegal,would have brought America out of the Great Depression.
THE CONSPIRACY
William Randolph Hearst (Citizen Kane) and the Hearst Paper Manufacturing Division of Kimberly Clark owned vast acreage of timberlands. The Hearst Company supplied most paper products. Patty Hearst’s grandfather, a destroyer of nature for his own personal profit, stood to lose billions because of hemp.
In 1937, DuPont patented the processes to make plastics from oil and coal. DuPont’s Annual Report urged stockholders to invest in its new petrochemical division. Synthetics such as plastics, cellophane, celluloid, methanol, nylon, rayon, Dacron, etc., could now be made from oil.Natural hemp industrialization would have ruined over 80% of DuPont’s business.
Andrew Mellon became Hoover’s Secretary of the Treasury and DuPont’s primary investor. He appointed his future nephew-in-law,Harry J.Anslinger, to head the Federal Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs.
Secret meetings were held by these financial tycoons. Hemp was declared dangerous and a threat to their billion dollar enterprises. For their dynasties to remain intact, hemp had to go. These men took an obscure Mexican slang word: ‘marijuana’ and pushed it into the consciousness of America.
MEDIA MANIPULATIONA media blitz of ‘yellow journalism’ raged in the late 1920s and 1930s. Hearst’s newspapers ran stories emphasizing the horrors of marijuana. The menace of marijuana made headlines. Readers learned that it was responsible for everything from car accidents to loose morality.
Films like Reefer Madness (1936), Marijuana: Assassin of Youth (1935) and Marijuana: The Devil’s Weed (1936) were propaganda designed by these industrialists to create an enemy. Their purpose was to gain public support so that anti-marijuana laws could be passed.
Examine the following quotes from
The Burning Question, aka
Reefer Madness:
- a violent narcotic;
- acts of shocking violence;
- incurable insanity;
- soul-destroying effects;
- under the influence of the drug he killed his entire family with an ax;
- more vicious, more deadly even than these soul-destroying drugs (heroin, cocaine) is the menace of marijuana!
did not end with the usual
‘the end.’The film concluded with these words plastered on the screen:
‘Tell your children.’
In the 1930s, people were very naive, even to the point of ignorance. The masses were like sheep waiting to be led by the few in power. They did not challenge authority. If the news was in print or on the radio, they believed it had to be true. They told their children, and their children grew up to be the parents of the babyboomers.
On April 14, 1937, the prohibitive Marijuana Tax Law, or the bill that outlawed hemp, was directly brought to the House Ways and Means Committee. This committee is the only one that can introduce a bill to the House floor without it being debated by other committees. The Chairman of the U.S. Senate, Ways and Means Committee, at the time,Robert Doughton, was a
DuPontsupporter. He insured that the bill would pass Congress.
Dr. James Woodward, a physician and attorney, testified too late on behalf of the American Medical Association. He told the committee that the reason the AMA had not denounced the Marijuana Tax Law sooner was that the Association had just discovered that marijuana was hemp.
Few people, at the time, realized that the deadly menace they had been reading about on Hearst’s front pages was in fact passive hemp. The AMA understood cannabis to be a
medicinefound in numerous healing products sold over the last hundred years.
In September of 1937, hemp became illegal. The most useful crop known became a drug and our planet has been suffering ever since.
Congress banned hemp because it was said to be the most violence-causing drug known. Harry Anslinger, head of the Drug Commission for 31 years, promoted the idea that marijuana made users act extremely violent. In the 1950s, under the Communist threat ofMcCarthyism, Anslinger then said the exact opposite: marijuana will pacify you so much that soldiers would not want to fight.
Today, our planet is in desperate trouble. Earth is suffocating as large tracts of rain forests disappear. Pollution, poisons and chemicals are killing people. These great problems could be reversed if we industrialized hemp. Natural biomass could provide all of the planet’s energy needs that are currently supplied by fossil fuels.We have consumed 80% of our oil and gas reserves.We need a renewable resource. Hemp could be the solution to soaring gas prices.
THE WONDER PLANT
Hemp has a higher quality fiber than wood fiber. Far fewer caustic chemicals are required to make paper from hemp than from trees. Hemp paper does not turn yellow and is very durable. The plant grows quickly to maturity in a season where trees take a lifetime.
All plastic products should be made from hemp seed oil.Hempen plastics are biodegradable! Over time, they would break down and not harm the environment. Oil-based plastics, the ones we are very familiar with, help ruin nature. They do not break down and will do great harm in the future. The process to produce the vast array of natural (hempen) plastics will not ruin the rivers as
DuPontand other petrochemical companies have done. Ecology does not fit in with the plans of the oil industry and the political machine.Hemp products are safe and natural.
Medicines should be made from hemp.We should go back to the days when the AMA supported cannabis cures.‘Medical Marijuana’ is given out legally to only a handful of people while the rest of us are forced into a system that relies on chemicals. Pot is only healthy for the human body.
World hunger could end.A large variety of food products can be generated from hemp. The seeds contain one of the highest sources of protein in nature. Also: They have two essential fatty acids that clean your body of cholesterol. These essential fatty acids are not found anywhere else in nature! Consuming pot seeds is the best thing you could do for your body. Eat uncooked hemp seeds.
Clothes should be made from hemp.Hemp clothing is extremely strong and durable over time.You could hand clothing, made from pot, down to your grandchildren. Today, there are American companies that make hemp clothing; usually 50% hemp. Hemp fabrics should be everywhere. Instead, they are almost underground. Superior hemp products are not allowed to advertise on fascist television.
Kentucky, once the top hemp producing state, made it
illegal to wearhemp clothing! Can you imagine being thrown into jail for wearing quality jeans?
The world is crazy. But that does not mean you have to join the insanity. Get together. Spread the news. Tell people, and that includes your children, the truth. Use hemp products. Eliminate the word ’marijuana.’Realize the history that created it.Make it politically incorrect to say or print the M-word. Fight against the propaganda (designed to favor the agenda of the super rich) and the BS.Hemp must be utilized in the future.We need a clean energy source to save our planet.
Industrialize hemp!
The liquor, tobacco and oil companies fund more than a million dollars a day to Partnership for a Drug-Free America and other similar agencies.We have all seen their commercials. Now, their motto is:
‘It’s more dangerous than we thought.’Lies from the powerful corporations, that began with Hearst, are still alive and well today.
The brainwashing continues. Now, the commercials say: If you buy a joint, you contribute to murders and gang wars. The latest anti-pot commercials say: If you buy a joint… you are promoting terrorism! The new enemy (
terrorism) has paved the road to brainwash you any way they see fit.
There is only one enemy: the friendly people you pay your taxes to, the war-makers and nature destroyers.With your funding, they are killing the world right in front of your eyes.
Half a million deaths each year are caused by tobacco. Half a million deaths each year are caused by alcohol. No one has ever, ever died from smoking pot!!
In the entire history of the human race, not one death can be attributed to cannabis. Our society has outlawed grass but condones the use of the
killers:tobacco and alcohol.
Hemp should be declassified and placed in drug stores to relieve stress. Hardening and constriction of the arteries are bad, but hemp usage actually enlarges the arteries, which is a healthy condition. We have been so conditioned to think that smoking is harmful. That is not the case for passive pot.
Ingesting THC, hemp’s active agent, has a positive effect: relieving asthma and glaucoma. A joint tends to alleviate the nausea caused by chemotherapy. You are able to eat on hemp. This is a healthy state of being.
[one personal note. During the pregnancy of my wife, she was having some difficulty gaining weight.We were in the hospital. A nurse called us to one side and said:
“Off the record, if you smoke pot… you’d get something called the munchies and you’ll gain weight.”I swear that is a true story.]
The stereotype for a pothead is similar to a drunk, bubble-brain.Yet, the truth is one’s creative abilities can be enhanced under its influence. The perception of time slightly slows and one can become more sensitive.You can more appreciate all arts, be closer to nature and generally
feelmore under the influence of cannabis. It is, in fact, the exact opposite state of mind and body as the drunken state. You can be more aware with pot.
The pot plant is an
alienplant. There is physical evidence that cannabis is not like any other plant on this planet. One could conclude that it was brought here for the benefit of humanity. Hemp is the
onlyplant where the males appear one way and the females appear very different, physically!
No one ever speaks of males and females in regard to the plant kingdom because plants do not show their sexes. Except for cannabis. To determine what sex a certain, normal, earthly plant is, you have to look internally, at its DNA. A male blade of grass (physically) looks exactly like a female blade of grass. The hemp plant has an intense sexuality. Growers know to kill the males before they fertilize the females. Yes, folks, the most potent pot comes from ‘horny females.’
The reason this amazing, very sophisticated, ET plant from the future is illegal has nothing to do with how it physically affects us.
Pot is illegal because billionaires want to remain billionaires!
“And I will raise up for them a plant of renown, and they shall be no more consumed with hunger in the land.”– Ezekiel 34:29.
p.s. I think the word ‘drugs’ should not be used as an umbrella-word that covers all chemical agents. Drugs have come to be known as something bad. Are you aware there are legal drugstores?! Yep, in every city. Unbelievable. Each so-called drug should be considered individually. Cannabis is a medicine and not a drug. We should dare to speak the truth no matter what the law is.
- Re: Biodegradable Plastic Emerging spudlydoo
13 y
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This is a reply to # 1,750,869Good article, hemp is a wonderful plant, hemp products are good for the environment, and it is a sustainable crop for oil and fibre. Hemp oil is wonderful for your skin as well, and overall health.
There will always be those people that abuse medicines, even natural ones. The benefits of using hemp far outweigh the detrimental effects to people and society, that the abuse of this medicinal plant causes.
spud
- Re: Biodegradable Plastic Emerging pawel110
13 y
5,049
This is a reply to # 1,750,879Agreed.
There are many articles on hemp and its uses number in the many hundreds.
Also, the detrimental effects from its recreational use are overplayed as these so called effects emerged when its use was being removed from western society (propagandised).
I would hazard a guess that amino-acid, mineral and vitamin deficiency that go hand in hand with standard western diet have more to do with health detriment than the use of hemp recreationally. Alcohol and tobacco being legal raises eyebrows and questions!
Henry Fords almost exclusive use of hemp for an brief period is another well documented point of departure as hemp is more prolific, versatile, resilient and productive than virtually any other tree or plant.
In all a good plant that has many uses and is illegal in europe save for portugal and the dutch turn a blind eye to its use and these countries also have the least drug related problemsin europe.
- Re: Biodegradable Plastic Emerging spudlydoo
13 y
4,970
This is a reply to # 1,751,062This is a classic case of the demonising of a plant, for the sole purpose of greed. As was pointed out in the article, oil companies and chemical companies, didn't want the competition from a plant that can be easily grown, (it grows wild in many countries, and can be grown on very poor soil, with little water).
I watched the destruction of the as small part of the Indian hemp industry, when I lived in India as a child. Small farming villages would grow hemp, to supplement their income. It could be grown on the marginal land, that would not support food crops, and needed very little attention.
The hemp they grew, was used to make rope and cloth, and the seed oil was used in lamps, and in cooking.
When I went back to visit India, many years later, the hemp was gone, and in its place was a pharmaceutical factory. This factory, (producing product for phfiser), has polluted the water, and the village has disappeared.
In my country now, you need a special licence to grow hemp, and the people that do grow it, have to put barbed wire fences around their crop, because stupid people think that its ok to steal the plants and smoke them, (even though the plants are not the hybridised versions that are used recreationally).
The plants that people in India, and other countries, used for medicine, and for recreational smoking, are not the plants that are now grown for this purpose. The plants that are growing now are the hibridised and genetically engineered, monsters, that we see being used today. The active ingredient THC, has become the sole reason for growing hemp, and the strength of the chemical in these monster plants, is far beyond anything people previously knew. It can do a lot of damage to a persons health, to use these new hybrid plants. The plants that are grown today, for recreational use, compared to the original plants, is like comparing drinking 80% proof alcohol, with drinking a beer.
This is what happens when a government makes something that started out as useful and relatively harmless, into an illegal drug industry, and for some people, a lifestyle that revolves around using this drug.
This then gives the government a reason to point the finger at hemp, and say, "look at what people are doing with this evil plant, we need tougher penalties", even though they have engineered this outcome.
spud
- Re: Biodegradable Plastic Emerging spudlydoo
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- Re: Biodegradable Plastic Emerging pawel110
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- Re: Biodegradable Plastic Emerging spudlydoo
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- Re: Biodegradable Plastic Emerging #137354
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This is a reply to # 1,748,648Corn based plastics (aka PLA or Poly Lactic Acid) were invented to address the problem of using petroleum as a source. However it cannot biodegrade or compost unless it is placed into specific, man made, mechanically heated environments which are not readily available to most of the population. Let's look at 3 facts:
1-In order to break down, PLA must be discarded in a commercial composting facility. These are generally huge operations used to process massive amounts of food waste from grocery stores, agricultural waste, restaurant food waste etc. Do you know where your nearest commercial composting facility is? If so, do you take your plastic waste there each week? Almost everyone answers "No, I recycle it or it goes in my trash then to a landfill."
2-The answer to whether PLA can be recycled in today's recycling infrastructure is also, unfortunately, a resounding "No". PLA contaminates the recycling stream and cannot be comingled with current recycled plastics.
3-PLA has significantly reduced performance as compared to traditional plastics, severely limiting it's ability to be applied to many every day needs for which the world relies on plastic in the first place!
These shortcomings have inspired new technology to solve the end-of-life of plastic waste in the recycling stream or in our landfills. ENSO additive technology is one example. This additive can be added to everyday plastics during manufacturing to render them biodegradable in aerobic or anaerobic (landfill) environments. Specific microorganisms found in nature and in landfills are attracted to the additive. They feed on it, multiplying and colonizing. As they metabolize the carbon in the ENSO additive they secrete powerful enzymes to break down the plastic polymer. In this way they can get to the carbon that is within the plastic polymer and begin to use that as a food source as well. This process breaks down the polymer completely in a few years instead of centuries. What is left behind is inert humus (soil) and gases (carbon dioxide and methane).
The good news is that plastic produced using this additive maintains original performance qualities AND can be comingled in the everyday, municipal recycling stream. It works for today's plastic applications.
Stop by the website to learn more. The FAQ page is a great place to start. http://www.ensobottles.com
Thanks, Max
- Re: Biodegradable Plastic Emerging spudlydoo
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This is a reply to # 1,753,244Very interesting, and would be a good addition to the way plastics are manufactured now, and an alternative to those plastics that do not break down.
However, I would like to see a move away from plastics, that use fossil fuels for manufacture, and these types of plastics completely phased out.
Fossil fuels, oil, are a finite resource, and a major pollutant of our planet.
If the problem is that people do not know where the recycling plants for PLA are, then education is needed. Or more recycling plants need to be built.
There are companies producing PLA plastics that are biodegradable in soil, and this research should be promoted, then there would be no need for many people to recycle their PLA containers, outside of their own gardens. Less landfill.
Lastly, and most importantly, we can all reduce our use of plastics, particularly plastic drink bottles and products that use unnecessary plastic packaging.
spud
- Re: Biodegradable Plastic Emerging spudlydoo
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- Re: Biodegradable Plastic Emerging spudlydoo
13 y
4,861
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