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Possibly the cutest educational video about biodegradable plastic ever:

Mikey even has a twitter account and a facebook page.

This is great for educating people about additives that make traditional plastics biodegradable.  But where is the marketing genius from the bioplastics supporters?

A new Green & Clean article came out today that asks the question: "Is Algae Poised for Renewable Energy Superstardom?"

While renewable energy sources such as solar, wind and geothermal have reached commercialized levels of development, algae is still very much under development. But recent news suggests that all of this is about to change in a major way, putting algae on the fast-track to sustainable growth. Will you and your business be ready?

Even in the noble world of sustainability, money talks. And nowhere is this more prevalent in a recent story that appeared in Money, of all places. In a nutshell, the magazine is reporting that the global algae biofuel market is heating up big time, with some major players in the financial services industry lining up to back significant projects.

The idea of using algae as an "oil substitute" has been around a long time.  In fact, you should check out oilgae.com, the website dedicated to the topic!

But here at Green Plastics, we know something else about algae that makes it a good business prospect for the future.

You can make plastic out of it.

Almost exactly a year ago, Cereplast announced that it would be working on an algae-based bioplastic, and provided a press-release update last April:

Cereplast, Inc., a leading manufacturer of proprietary bio-based, sustainable plastics, announced today that its plan to develop a new family of algae-based resins is progressing well and that the Company expects to offer the first grade of Cereplast Algae Plastics® for commercial use by the end of the year.

"Our view is that developing alternative feedstock unrelated to fossil fuels and to the food chain is the next 'frontier' for bioplastics and Cereplast is moving ahead very aggressively on this front."

Cereplast algae-based resins represent a breakthrough in industry technology and have the potential to replace 50% or more of the petroleum content used in traditional plastic resins. Currently, Cereplast is using renewable material such as starches from corn, tapioca, wheat and potatoes in the manufacture of bio-based resins. Algae-based resins, which are revolutionary in the industry, will complement the Company’s existing line of Compostables® and Hybrid® resins.

"Algae-based resins represent the latest advancement in bioplastics technology and our product development efforts over the last several months has yielded very encouraging results," said Frederic Scheer, Founder, Chairman and CEO of Cereplast, Inc. "The properties of hybrid materials that we have developed with algae are now very close to meeting our expectations, and are on target to introduce a new family algae-based plastics by the end of the year. In the not so distant future, we believe that algae will become one of the most important 'green' feedstocks in bioplastics as well as biofuels." Added Mr. Scheer, "Our view is that developing alternative feedstock unrelated to fossil fuels and to the food chain is the next 'frontier' for bioplastics and Cereplast is moving ahead very aggressively on this front.

And just a few months ago, ICIS announced that algae-based bioplastics are a fast-growing market.

So if you are keeping an eye out for the keyword algae in your daily scans of "environmental news", remember that it's not just poised to be the Next Big Fuel.... it could be the Next Big Plastic, as well.