RE: [greenyes] Plastic from corn?

[Alan Muller <amuller@no.address>]

At 09:10 AM 11/30/2004 -0500, Pat Franklin wrote:
> Don makes a good argument for corn/soy-based plastics over petroleum-derived
> plastics, but I don't think it's quite that simple .....

I agree.

I'm no expert here, but would advise against assuming that there are two 
families of plastic, one made out of oil and not biodegradable, another 
made out of grain and biodegradable.  There are thousands of types of 
plastic, and it seems entirely possible that some oil-based ones could be 
biodegradable and some biomass-based ones not.  The feedstock doesn't 
*necessarily* determine the properties of the product.

Further, few corporations (Enron?  Monsanto?  DuPont?) could compete with 
the squalid record of Cargill for the (un)ethical conduct.  These folk and 
their competitors will do *anything* to develop new markets for grain, and 
pry subsidies out of the taxpayers.

We need to move away from oil-based-everything, with with as much awareness 
as possible.

Alan Muller

Alan Muller, Executive Director
Green Delaware
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