'Corntainer' plastic hits the market: Green packaging made without petroleum

Reuters ^ | Friday, June 13, 2003

[presidio9]

Wild Oats Markets Inc. became the first grocery store in the United States to roll out a new type of "green" packaging which looks like plastic but turns into compost after disposal.

Unofficially called the "Corntainer" in the natural food chain's 11 Pacific Northwest stores where it is being tested, the clear packaging is made from corn rather than petroleum.

[Tax-chick]

Sounds cool! My dad has a pretty good corn crop this year, too ...

[egarvue]

I'm not an eco-greenie, but I think this is very cool. Aside from a greater market for American corn (I'm in Illinois, so I have a vested interest in the stuff), this sounds like a responsible method of creating disposable containers. I love American ingenuity!

[DannyTN]

"Although the product costs 40 to 50 percent more than plastic packaging, Wild Oats is not passing the extra cost on to the customer. It expects the price will come down as the product becomes more widespread. "

Even if the price doesn't come down, it means that there is a substitute product if the price of petroleum keeps rising.

[NetValue]

There is also another new container that does not need plastic and is fully biodegradable. The company is called EarthShell See stock under symbol ERTH or ERTHE.

[Digger]

If we virtally knew that all of the oil would be gone in ten years you would see replacements everywhere. We can go to the moon, operate on infant hearts in the womb but we can't solve an energy crisis. It's as silly as Bush enacting all of the democrats spending programs so as to allow you to vote for a (R) behind the name.

[FreePaul]

With this new "plastic" and gasahol using up the corn crop I guess that we will have to find a way to make food from petroleum. Fair trade?

[stars & stripes forever]

What are the Greens going to do when farmers cut down trees to make room for additional cornfields needed to keep up with corntainer demand?

[Tax-chick]

We don't have an energy crisis. We could have domestic energy self-sufficiency, if anyone cared.

Still, it's nice that they're making something with corn instead of oil; it does leave less mess.

[banjo joe]

Greens detest farmers as much as loggers. BTW, anyone building a deck, shed, etc., right now? How 'bout them lumber prices!

[dalereed]

Lets hope that the new process that converts organic waste into petroleum is successfull and we can scrap all the environmental "renewable" junk science projects that are consuming our tax dollars as subsidies.

[RightWhale]

What part of the corn plant do they use for this?

[CobaltBlue]

I haven't been following lumber prices. Are they high or low?

[Cicero]

It says "Europe, Japan early adopters Cargill began developing the process 14 years ago, fermenting the dextrose, or sugar, in corn syrup into lactic acid and then refining it into small pellets of PLA."

So evidently it's made from the syrup derived from the corn kernels.

[FreePaul]

I wish they would come up with a "plastic" that would decompose naturally and rapidly. We live a few blocks from a major street with several junk food joints. Our yard and the whole neighborhood is trashed by the residue from these places.

[Libertarianize the GOP]

ping

[dalereed]

Turn almost anything into oil.

Click here:


http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/897667/posts

[activationproducts]

You needn't worry about running out of corn anytime soon. Supply far outsrips demand. The government subsidies it.

You needn't worry about trees either. Places like Nebraska, South Dakota, North Dakota, and Iowa is where most corn is grown in the US. We have very few trees out here.

[longtermmemmory]

The left will then blame the United States for starving the innocent chinesse people of africa by using food cord for fuel. You are starving people for your eeeevil suv's.

[scooter2]

BTW, anyone building a deck, shed, etc., right now? How 'bout them lumber prices!

Hey Joe,
Now there's plasticdeck material available that's made form recycled plastic soft drink bottles. My brother-in-law just put up a new deck with the stuff and it looks great. It actually cost less that treated deck lumber.