What is Plant-Based Plastic?
Most plastics are made from oil or natural gas. As many of you are aware, some of these plastics can leach risky chemicals and they don’t biodegrade – meaning they will be lingering in our environment, leaching their poisons for many, many generations to come.
5gyres.org, summarizes the problem: “The short-term convenience of using and throwing away plastic products carries a very inconvenient long-term truth. These plastic water bottles, cups, utensils, electronics, toys, and gadgets we dispose of daily are rarely recycled in a closed loop. We currently recover only 5% of the plastics we produce. What happens to the rest of it? Roughly 50% is buried in landfills, some is remade into durable goods, and much of it remains “unaccounted for”, lost in the environment where it ultimately washes out to sea.”
Enter plant-based plastic…
According to the Center for Health and Environmental Justice:
Today, numerous manufacturers are beginning to use or develop plastics made out of renewable materials, such as corn, sugar beets, sugar cane, wheat, rice and sweet potatoes. Plant based plastics (also called bioplastics or biobased plastics) can be produced using several different processes including starch conversion, microbial conversion and genetic modification of plants.
In the U.S., the primary company manufacturing bioplastics is NatureWorks, owned by Cargill. They can produce 300 million pounds a year of a plastic called PLA, or poly lactic acid, that is made from corn grown in Nebraska and Iowa. Starch from the corn is extracted and converted into dextrose (sugar) and then into lactic acid by fermentation. The lactic acid is further refined into pellets that can be made into different end-products. Other companies manufacturing plant based plastics include Dupont, BASF, Eastman, Proctor & Gamble, and Cereplast.
There are many environmental and health benefits to switching to plant-based plastics, but there are also more improvements needed. For example, it would be better to use non-food plants to create plastics. Also, at this time there is very limited recycling options and even though the material is biodegradable, composting it can release greenhouse gases and contribute to global warming. Ideally, in the future PLA will be widely recycled as the product does not lose its integrity no matter how many times it’s recycled.
In addition to Stonyfield’s new multipack yogurt cups, here are some other examples of products using plant based plastics:
- Plastic bags - BioBag
- Water bottles - Biota Water
- Disposable forks and knives - Cereplast
- Wall carpets - Interface
- Cups for smoothies - Mrs. Fields Brands
- Electronics packaging and products - Sony
- Car floormats - Toyota
- Produce packaging - Wal-Mart
- Deli containers - Wild Oats
Is it safe plastic?
PLA is approved by the FDA for use in food packaging. But Stonyfield has gone well beyond legal requirements to uphold their commitment to consumer safety. They hired Pure Strategies, an independent scientific consulting firm, to develop a list of potentially dangerous additives like BPA, phthalates, carcinogens, mutagens, reproductive toxins and endocrine disruptors, and they signed a contract that prohibits their supplier from using them. They also routinely test the plastic to ensure compliance.
Allergic to corn?
You can safely use PLA. The heat used in the process of deriving the starch from corn destroys the immunologically reactive profiilin. Profilin is the chemical that usually causes an allergic reaction and is not found in PLA products.
Note: PLA falls into the #7 (other) category of plastics. You should avoid #7 Polycarbonate (PC) plastic due to BPA leaching, but #7 PLA is safe.
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This answer was provided by our fabulous Chief Communications Officer, Janelle. See all of our questions and answers at Get Answers. Do you have a question? Let us know!
