Are bio plastics competing with food crops?

[greg]

[From the 'Just One Word' plastics.com blog]

Thats the question we are asking today...

Are bio plastics competing with food crops? Are we just replacing one problem with another?

Just read a great article on Cereplast's technology to make plastics from potatoes and algae but it didn't address the question: in a world w/hungry people, does crop based plastics make sense?

Frederic Scheer, the CEO of Cerplast and it's main inventor of the technologies does make the claim that:

Each time you create one kilo of traditional polypropylene, you create 3.15 kilos of carbon dioxide. When we create one kilo of bio-propylene, we create 1.40 kilos of carbon dioxide, so clearly you have a substantial saving with respect to greenhouse gases, creating a much better carbon footprint for the product

The answer may be in algae conversion, a process Cereplast is working on, but we'd like to see more detail on crop based plastics (or alternatives) versus the need for food crops.

Additional Links:
http://www.cereplast.com/ Cereplast website
http://plastics.com/plorfood This forum link, shortened for sharing

Join the discussion in plastics.com forums, what do you think?

[Len]

Greg,

Figures don't lie, but liars often figure. I wonder whether the "carbon footprint" for crop based PP considers the fuel needed to tile and culitvate, plant, weed control, and finally harvest the crop were taken into account? Or do the figures only represent the conversion of crop to plastic?

And finally, when PP is produced from oil or natural gas the what other useful products; either polymer or petroleum related are produced from that feed stock? Is this considered in the PP "carbon footprint"calculation?

Just asking,

Len

[greg]

I like feedstocks made from food waste streams, and the technology for algae is fascinating and hopeful. My concern is the same as anti-ethanol people say, "Should we really be persuading farmers to grow crops for gasoline at the expense of crops for food?" It just seems to have some faulty logic.

But polymers from turkey feathers, bacteria, algae, food wastes, dirty diapers, hair, swamp grass, pig urine, orange peels, carbon dioxide; these we support fully!

(Yes, plastics can be made from all of the above, and much more)

[Louis]

The amount of arable land per person was reduced from 2.43 acres per person in 1900 to 0.60 acres per person in 2005. 13% or so of the earth’s surface will support agriculture, and that assumes that we cut down more forests to plant food or fuel crops.

But wait, it is the trees that thrive on what was just recently described as a "green house gas". Cutting them down will surely increase pollution. What to do . . .

For sure, oil to make plastics will not last forever, even though the environmentalists would have you believe that the plastics made from oil will. In fact, there are many that say we have reached or passed the half way point in oil consumption; less oil is left than what has been burned or used to make plastics. Since the sun is predicted to be good for another 1.5 BILLION years before it burns out and ceases to support life, (call me and let me know how that works out will you) at some point, we need to start planning for the replacement of oil.

But every action has an equal and sometimes unpredictable reaction. Slow the wind by erecting too many wind turbines and you might change the weather. Cut down the forests to grow corn or potatoes for fuel and you might dirty the air we breathe. Build a dam and you prevent the circulation of water as nature designed it - who knows what the ramifications might be besides dead fish and submerged towns.

I can honest say that I don't know enough about the pros and cons of planting for plastics or farming for fuel, other than to say we should think out of the box at what might happen long term. Desertification comes to mind. During the past 40 years nearly one-third of the world's cropland (1.5 billion hectares) has been abandoned because of soil erosion and degradation." Faming too, takes its toll on the earth.

But I do enjoy a good discussion . . .