As most of us know, the plastic bags that are used in the grocery store by you or me aren’t very eco-friendly. These bags are developed from various petrochemical sources, which are detrimental to the planet’s health. So, in order to develop more eco-friendly plastic products, researchers turned to the sugary sugar cane for better results.
According to the researchers, sugarcane can be processed to produce environment friendly plastic bags. This process will be taken care of by an American Industrial Biotech company known as Metabolix.
Along with the American firm Metabolix, the University of Queensland’s Cooperative Research Center for Sugar Industry Innovation (CRC-SSI) as well as the KAIST (recognized as ‘MIT of South Korea’) are together looking into this matter. The Queensland minister of state will be signing the deal between the University of Queensland and the Boston based firm Metabolix. By balancing the Queensland’s sugarcane production and South Korea’s expertise in the chemical industry, sugarcane will be turned into more eco-friendly plastic.
This program is mostly known as sugar cane plastics program. The International collaboration between the three organizations (KAIST of South Korea, CRCSIIB of Queensland and Metabolix of Boston) will yield the following results:
� this process will result in eco friendly plastic bags which will be based on bio products instead of petrochemical products.
� create hyper-efficient bio refineries that will convert sugarcane into ‘green’ products.
� Bio tech CEO Dr. Peter Twine mentions the new products developed by this process have excellent life. The new polymers according to him will be longer lasting since they are heat resistant and will also be made from bio friendly products.
� Queensland govt. has committed $1.5 billion to the life sciences and bio tech industries in the state.
The minister for state Development John Mickel said:
Metabolix currently produces natural plastic from renewable, biodegradable resources, such as corn, providing a renewable alternative to petroleum-based plastics. I think this type of product will become more and more popular as environmentally-aware consumers turn more and more to environmentally-friendly products such as this.
Hopefully, this international collaboration will make people more aware about developing the so-called green products. With the daily depletion of conventional sources of materials and energy, people are looking for different sources that are present in the world today. The sugarcane to plastic program is just a start, and a signal of good things to come in future.
