First stop is Coca-Cola’s announcement of its new plant-based plastic bottle, 30% of which is made from sugar cane and molasses. The rest of the plastic is petroleum-based polyethylene (PET).
The company said the 100% recyclable plastic bottle can be processed through existing manufacturing and recycling facilities without contaminating traditional PET. Coca-Cola North America will pilot the “PlantBottle™” with Dasani and sparkling brands in select markets later this year and with VitaminWater in 2010.
Bioplastic manufacturer Metabolix, meanwhile, got proof that their plastic is compostable in Europe. The company’s Mirel™ bioplastic resins received the Vinçotte certification of “OK Compost” for compostability in an industrial composting unit and “OK Compost HOME” for compostability in home composting systems. Hmmm, only ok?? No great, plantastic, or plantabulous???
Metabolix said the Belgium-based Vinçotte is widely recognized in Europe for materials inspection, certification, assessments and technical training.
Another bioplastic manufacturer Cereplast said its Hybrid Resins® is going to be used in juvenile furniture products such as a bathtub, potty, booster and step stool by Dorel Juvenile Group. Dorel’s Safety 1ST Nature Next™ products line will be sold in hundreds of stores nationwide including Wal-Mart.
Meanwhile, Bio-Tec Environmental is working to make traditional petroleum-based plastic green with its additive EcoPure. The company said it just completed a new round of testing on its EcoPure, which turns regular plastic into biodegradable plastic.
The company tested polypropylene, PVC, PE and EVA at an independent lab, and the results are said to indicate that EcoPure makes plastics biodegrade in a microbial rich environment, when used at a .7% concentration.
Finally, researchers from Iowa State University (ISU) are investigating how certain varieties of battlefield-generated waste plastics can boost the power output of biodiesel, which can fuel military base generators. The U.S. Army initiated the research with General Atomics, Renewable Energy Group Inc. and ISU to investigate which plastic materials (such as styrofoam) best dissolve into biodiesel, and how stationary engines perform when running on the polymer-rich fuel.
“If you take a Styrofoam cup and drop it into room-temperature biodiesel, it will dissolve in a couple minutes, but Polyethylene terephthalate (PET), or soda bottles, will not dissolve,” said Iowa State professor Balaji Narasimhan. “Some garbage bags and containers for meals ready to eat (MREs) also dissolve into biodiesel.”
According to Biodiesel magazine, engine tests thus far have only successfully used biodiesel with polystyrene–in concentrations of 1 percent, 2 percent, 5 percent and 10 percent.
http://www.icis.com/blogs/green-chemicals/2009/05/more-bioplastic-news.html
