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The Material Facts About Bioplastics PDF Print E-mail
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Media & Hype
Written by Green Plastics   
Wednesday, 03 November 2010 06:38

Joel Makower has put together a fantastic article at greenbiz.com, taking questions from the viewers of their webcast, "A New Life for Plastics: End-of-life Solutions in the Age of Greener Materials," and providing answers given by three experts in the field: William Hoffman, environmental scientist in green chemistry at UL Environment; Robert Whitehouse, Director of Applications Development for Metabolix, Inc., a leading bioplastics company; and Kelly Lehrmann, consultant with the German bioplastics firm FKuR.

You should read the entire article here:  http://www.greenbiz.com/blog/2010/11/02/material-facts-about-bioplastics

But here are some of the questions that you can see answers to in the article:

  • What is the best benefit from a bioplastic: the biodegradability or the renewable source reducing the carbon footprint?
  • What about anaerobic degradation in a closed landfill?
  • How long does it take ASTM D6400 to fully degrade into safe emissions in comparison to the other biodegradable products?
  • What are the exact conditions of a landfill to facilitate biodegradation? How many landfills with these conditions currently exist (and in which markets)?
  • Can you speak a bit about the recyclability of biobased plastics? For example, Coke now has a PET PlantBottle that is 100% recyclable. How is this resin different from other biobased plastics?
  • Related to the issue of recyclability of bio-plastics, what is the latest on developing a recyclability standard, whether for biobased plastics or fiber-based, etc?
  • With respect to the bio-sources of the plastics described by these presenters, are there any conflicts with sources for food products?
 

Comments  

 
0 # Jacqueline 2011-08-03 08:31
I want to ask what is the use of the water and why we have to add vinegar in making bio-plastic? Thank you!
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0 # Greg Stevens 2011-08-04 16:29
We have added an article to answer this question! Hope this helps.

http://green-plastics.net/discussion/54-student/122-qaa-why-water-and-vinegar
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0 # Karen 2011-08-11 15:44
hey :0
i just want to know what kind of starch i can use and where i could buy them. Also does this smells while we're making this? its because wwere planning to do this during our science experiment and i dont want the lab to stink.
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0 # Greg Stevens 2011-08-12 07:29
It shouldn't smell and is perfectly safe to do as a school project, if that's what you are thinking of.

As far as starch goes, you should be able to use just regular cornstarch that you would buy in any grocery store!
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0 # Bob 2011-08-16 17:16
You can use Starch from Potatoes too... just smash them up real good and leave them; the starch should sink to the bottom, and after that you could take off the excess water and use it.
Did it in a science experiment a while back, turned out perfectly good! Just be careful with the amount of vinegar, because it reflects on the consistency and thickness of the plastic ;-)
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0 # millette 2011-10-10 08:55
can we know how to make bio based plastics in large scales? examples in industrial plants.. thanks!
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0 # David 2011-10-19 06:40
Hi, this is really interesting! I am making a prototype at the moment, and I would really like to make a prototype using a green plastic, and I need it to have similar properties to polypropelene (when it's quite hard, and can make a living hinge in it).
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0 # Greg Stevens 2011-10-19 18:54
Is there a reason that you would want to make this plastic yourself from scratch? If that's not necessary, you might be better off buying a commercially-made bio-polypropelene resin from a manufacturer and creating your prototype from that.
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0 # David 2011-10-20 04:06
Hi Greg, Thanks a lot for your reply. You are right, there is no real need for me to make it myself. I am just a bit clueless when it comes to these things! I was wondering if you could please recommend a manufacturer to order this material from? Or any idea how I could find it? google wasn't too helpful...
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0 # Kalpesh Soni 2012-01-06 05:37
Hi Greg,
We are making Compostable films with using Biocompostable raw materials but film having a cereal odour.
Plaese help us for neurlizing this odour means odourless film.

Regards,
Kalpesh Soni.
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0 # Tasme 2012-02-12 14:59
Hi, I'm doing my science fair project based on the bioplastic you've made. I was wondering what is the chemical equation for it; Water + Glycerin + Corn starch + Vinegar --> Bioplastic + Oxygen.
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0 # Greg Stevens 2012-02-12 15:07
Hello Tasme!

I'm so glad to hear that you're doing your fair project on bioplastics!

However, there isn't a single "chemical equation" for the creation of bioplastic, because "bioplastic" isn't a single molecule. The polymer in the starch mixes with the plasticizer molecules in the glycerin, but they don't REACT with them. Instead, the glycerin molecules act as a kind of "lubricant" the gets between the starch polymer molecules to make them move more freely.

We have more details on this article here on the website:

http://green-plastics.net/discussion/54-student/114-qaa-chemical-formula-for-bioplastic

Happy experimenting!
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