Food Yesterday, Plastics Today: Chapter 1

Plastics. You have used it everyday of your life.

But are you aware of plastic pollution? 

Did you know that plastic bags are mistaken to be jellyfishes by turtles and consumed, remaining in their digestive tracts (Fig. 1) (Bugoni, Krause, & Petry, 2001)? When plastics photo-degrade into microplastics, they also deposit permanently on beaches (Kusui & Noda, 2003).

Fig.1: A turtle ingesting plastic (source: http://www.dropbydrop.eu/36808)

Environmental impacts like this have advocated the switch to biodegradable plastics. This plastics can decompose in a timely fashion unlike their predecessors which remain in the environment for centuries! (exaggerated accounts claim that they will outlive humans)

In today’s post, I will be discussing on 1 type of biodegradable plastics called bioplastics.

Bioplastics are manufactured from renewable resources. One example of a bioplastic is polylactic acid (PLA), a ‘biodegradable, aliphatic polyester’ (Drumright, Gruber, & Henton, 2000). NatureWorks LLC is a bioplastic company in USA which uses sugar sources to make their own PLA called Ingeo (Fig. 2) (FROM PLANTS TO PLASTICS, 2014). 

Fig.2: The manufacture of INGEO
(source: http://www.natureworksllc.com/The-Ingeo-Journey/Eco-Profile-and-LCA/How-Ingeo-is-Made )

Ingeo is sold to manufacturers of plastic products (Fig. 3).

Fig.3: Ingeo pellets (source: http://science.kqed.org/quest/audio/bioplastic-boom/)

A Singaporean bioplastic company is OliveGreen. Using corn, yam and polypropylene (PP), pallets are formed (OliveGreen, 2014). The pallets are then processed into Origo which OliveGreen makes into their own Cornware (Fig. 4). While structurally similar to Ingeo, do bear in mind that Origo is not a PLA.

Fig. 4: Corn to pallets to Origo to Cornware Cup
(source: http://www.olivegreen.com.sg/process.php)

Adept at satisfying our daily needs, the global market is slowly accepting such eco-friendly ideals. 

However, critics have expressed that food should be prioritised on ebbing global starvation. Increasing demand on existing supplies will drive up food prices, stressing poorer countries (Runge & Senauer, 2007). Yet other researchers believe that logistics are the underlying cause of global hunger (Carus & Piotrowski, 2006).

My belief lies heavily towards the latter as WHO reported that 1.4 billion people were overweight in 2008 (WorldHealthOrganization, 2014). Clearly, many humans are overeating while many more are starving.

In my next post, I will discuss the second biodegradable plastic.

Stay tuned.

Literature Cited

Bugoni, L., Krause, L., & Petry, M. V. (2001, December). Marine Debris and Human Impacts on Sea Turtles in Southern Brazil. (C. Sheppard, Ed.) Marine Pollution Bulletin, 42(12), 223.

Carus, M., & Piotrowski, S. (2006). Land Use for Bioplastics. bioplastics MAGAZINE, 4, 46-49.

Drumright, R. E., Gruber, P. R., & Henton, D. E. (2000, December). Polylactic acid technology. (P. Gregory, Ed.) Advanced Materials, 12(23), 1841-1846.

FROM PLANTS TO PLASTICS. (2014, May 30). (Copyright 2014 NatureWorks LLC) Retrieved August 27, 2014, from NatureWorks LLC (ingeo: ingenious materials from plants not oil): http://www.natureworksllc.com/The-Ingeo-Journey/Eco-Profile-and-LCA/How-Ingeo-is-Made

Kusui, T., & Noda, M. (2003, January-June). International survey on the distribution of stranded and buried litter on beaches along the Sea of Japan. (C. Sheppard, Ed.) Marine Polllution Bulletin, 47(1-6), 272.

Runge, C. F., & Senauer, B. (2007, May-June). How Biofuels Could Starve The Poor. Foreign Affairs, 86(3), 41-53.

The process: how Origo is made. (2014, June 5). (Copyright Olive Green Marketing Pte. Ltd.) Retrieved August 27, 2014, from Olive Green (From nature...to your table): http://www.olivegreen.com.sg/process.php
WorldHealthOrganization. (2014, August ). Obesity and overweight. Retrieved from World Health Organization: http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs311/en/