Green Plastics

GREEN PLASTICS / BIOPLASTICS
Introduction and overview

To understand green plastics, you have to understand plastics: that is, you have to
understand what common, day-to-day plastics are made of, what goes into their
production, and why they are a matter of concern for the environment.
Although plastics as we know them today are a relatively recent invention, they have
become an important part of modern life and are here to stay. In the l967 movie The
Graduate, Dustin Hoffman's character was advised to go into "Plastics!" if he wanted a
promising career and a prosperous future. That future is now.
The age of plastics

Today, 200 billion pounds (100 million tons) of plastics are produced worldwide
every year. Plastics are used for packaging, building materials, and virtually every
type of consumer product. Past ages of human society have been called the Stone,
Bronze, Copper, Iron, and Steel Ages, based on the material that was relied upon the
most during that time. Today, the total volume of plastics produced worldwide has
surpassed that of steel and continues to increase. Without a doubt, we have entered the
Age of Plastics.
Some common plastic items include: sunglasses, tooth brushes, super glue, paint
brushes, tennis shoes, Frisbees, 2-liter bottles, Honda CRX's, Astroturf, photographs,
street signs, pens, automobile paint, video tapes, rubber bands, balloons, bicycle tires,
umbrellas, guitar strings, carpeting, shower doors, hearing aids, Scotch Tape, fishing
lines, trash bags, and toilet seats. Plastic can be found in everything from clothing to
machinary.
It is important to understand the nature of plastics, and the consequences of their

production and use. Virtually all plastics are made from nonrenewable resources, such
as oil, coal or natural gas, which will eventually become exhausted.
Plastics waste is increasing, adding to the already burdensome problems of waste
management. And the use of plastics continues to grow, raising the important
question: how can we balance convenient living with concern for ecology? To
understand this concern, it is helpful to understand what plastics are.
Why green plastics?

Green plastics are the focus of an emerging industry focused on making convenient
living consistent with environmental stability. One reason to make a shift toward the
use of green plastics is the availability of raw materials. Green plastics can be made
using polymers that come from agricultural and marine feedstocks. These are
abundant natural resources that are constantly being replenished. This, in turn could
revitalize rural economy, both agricultural and marine, by providing additional
demand for currently underutilized land or low-valued biomass commodities.
Another favorable property of green plastics is their biodegradability, making them a

natural material for use in such applications as compostable collection bags, such as
for food or yard waste.
But bioplastics have to possess adequate physical properties. Their properties have to
be managed and controlled with technological means through the development of
adequate formulations and plastics processing. The commercial ventures already
under way in the United States, Canada, Europe, and Japan indicate that there is
confidence technological advances are possible. The key to solving technical
problems is often simply knowing what the problems are.
Bioplastics also have to be cost-competitive. Commercially available biopolymers are

typically more expensive than synthetic polymers, often significantly so. Currently
only starch competes with synthetic polymers in terms of cost. It is too early to tell
how much the costs of raw materials might be brought down by a growing industry
and the resulting increased demand.
Interest in the development of bioplastics will grow largely to the extent that there is
real interest in and concern over the environment. Societal concern over the
environment is already being reflected in governmental restrictive legislation on the
use of plastics, particularly aimed at plastic packaging. Legislation has begun at the
local, state, federal, and international levels, and legislation will undoubtedly increase
in the future. New legislation will likely contain restrictions aimed at materials that are
neither recyclable nor biodegradable. Labeling legislation may lead to an "ecolabel,"
based on a product's raw material usage, energy consumption, emissions from
manufacture and use, and waste disposal impact.
Most of all, what is needed is a paradigm shift. We have grown accustomed to having
a wide variety of useful plastic materials that are attractive, long lasting, and
inexpensive. On the other hand, we are coming to realize, in retrospect, that we may
have had too much of a good thing, and have given too little thought about the effect
their continually increasing use has on the future.
Making it a reality
Ignoring nature's way of building strong materials, we have, for many applications,
over-engineered our plastics for stability, with little consideration of their recyclability
or ultimate fate, and ended up transforming irreplaceable resources into mountains of
waste.
There is another way. We can take nature's building materials and use them for our
purposes, without taking them out of nature's cycles. We can be borrowers, not
consumers, so that the process can continue indefinitely. If society is indeed becoming
more and more committed to resource conservation, environmental preservation, and
sustainable technologies, bioplastics will find their place in this Age of Plastics.
The widespread use of these new plastics will depend on developing technologies that
can be successful in the marketplace. That in turn will partly depend on how strongly
society is committed to the concepts of resource conservation, environmental
preservation, and sustainable technologies. There are growing signs that people indeed
want to live in greater harmony with nature and leave future generations a healthy
planet. If so, bioplastics will find a place in the current Age of Plastics.
History of Bioplastics
The use of natural polymers is not entirely a new idea. In one form or another, green
plastics have been around for a long time.
Early History
Natural resins-like amber, shellac, and gutta percha-have been mentioned throughout
history, including during Roman times and the Middle Ages. Native Americans were
developing and refining techniques for making ladles and spoons from animal horns
long before there was any European contact. In Europe, molded horn jewelry and
snuff boxes were popular in the eighteenth century.
The 1800's
Significant commercialization of bioplastics only began in the middle of the
nineteenth century... The American inventor, John Wesley Hyatt, Jr., was looking for
a substitute for ivory in the manufacture of billiard balls, and in 1869 patented a
cellulose derivative for coating non-ivory billiard balls. That attempt, however, was
affected by the coating's flammability; balls were occasionally ignited when lit cigars
accidentally came into contact with them. Hyatt continued working on the project and
soon developed celluloid, the first widely used plastic, now most widely known for its
use in photographic and movie film.
The 1900's
The history of plastics changed dramatically in the early 1900s, as petroleum emerged
as a source of fuel and of chemicals. The early bioplastics were simply displaced by
plastics made from synthetic polymers. World War II brought on a large increase in
plastics production, a growth which continues to this day.
The 1920's
In the 1920s Henry Ford experimented with using soybeans in the manufacture of
automobiles. Ford was partly motivated by a desire to find non-food applications for
agricultural surpluses, which existed then as they do now. Soy plastics were used for
an increasing number of automobile parts, like steering wheels, interior trim, and
dashboard panels. Finally Ford gave the go-ahead to produce a complete prototype
"plastic car." Ford, a master at generating publicity, exhibited the prototype with great
fanfare in 1941, but by the end of the year was no longer publicizing the "plastic car,"
probably for a variety of reasons. World War II played a role: armament work took
precedent over almost everything else, and steel shortages limited all non-defense
production. Today plastic automobile parts are common, but the use of plastics made
from renewable raw materials got side-tracked.
The 1960's
One well established bioplastic that has survived the growth of the synthetic plastics
industry is cellophane, a sheet material derived from cellulose. Although production
peaked in the 1960s it is still used in packaging for candy, cigarettes, and other
articles.
The 2000's and Beyond

Demand for materials like plastics is continually growing and will not be abated.
Today, the plastics industry is an important component of our economy: The U.S.
plastics industry includes over 20,000 facilities that produce or distribute materials or
products, employ over 1.5 million workers, and ship over $300 billion in products
each year.
The magnitude of the plastics industry, however, is itself a cause for concern. The
pressures of increasing waste and diminishing resources have lead many to to try to
re-discover natural polymers and put them to use as materials for manufactor and
industry. As a result, there is increasing interest in the promise of a new generation of
green plastics.
Green Plastics
Green Plastics, sometimes also called Bioplastics, are plastics that are biodegradable
and are usually made mostly or entirely from renewable resources. Frequently there is
also a focus on environmentally friendly processing. Green plastics are the focus of an
emerging industry focused on making convenient living consistent with environmental
stability.
Like all plastics, bioplastics are composed of a polymer, combined with plasticizers
and additives, and processed using extrusion or thermosetting. What makes green
plastics "green" is one or more of the following properties:
 they are biodegradable

 they are made from renewable ingredients
 they have environmentally friendly processing
Because different compounds can satisfy some or all of these criteria to different
degrees, there are different "degrees of green" in green plastics. To evaluate how
"green" a plastic material is, you need to ask three questions:
how quickly can the plastic be re-integrated into the environment after it is no longer
being used?
how quickly are the ingredients that go into making the plastic created in the
environment?
how much pollution or waste is created during the process of actually making the
plastic?
Traditional plastics fail on all three of these points.
Biodegradability (What happens to them?)

Main article: Biodegradable
For bioplastics to become practical, they must have properties that allow them to
compete with the current plastics on the market: bioplastics must be able to be strong,
resiliant, flexible, elastic, and above all, durable. It is the very durability of traditional
plastics that has helped them in the marketplace, and has been a major goal of plastics
research throughout the years. However, it is exactly this durability that now has
people increasingly worried. Now that we wrap our sandwiches in bags that will still
be around when the sandwich, and even the person who ate it, are long gone, many
people are wondering: have we gone too far?
There is a lot of current research going on concerning methods of decomposition.

There is also research on controlling the time-line of biodegradation. One goal of this
research is to make a product that is programmed-degradable: in other words, a
product that allows you to control when and how it degrades, while insuring that the
product remains strong while it is still in use.

Green Plastics

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GREEN PLASTICS / BIOPLASTICS

Introduction and overview

The age of plastics

It is important to understand the nature of plastics, and the consequences of their

Why green plastics?

Another favorable property of green plastics is their biodegradability, making them a

Bioplastics also have to be cost-competitive. Commercially available biopolymers are

The 2000's and Beyond

 they are biodegradable

Biodegradability (What happens to them?)

There is a lot of current research going on concerning methods of decomposition.

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