Corn plastics fight white pollution

The corn plastics factory of Cargill Road Co., Nebraska, USA, produced pure corn plastic. According to experiments, pure corn can be disposed of by burning, decomposition of microorganisms in the soil, natural degradation, and insect feeding, thus eliminating the danger of “white pollution”. In open-air environments, corn-made plastic cups disappeared in just 40 days.

One-tenth of US corn production will be made into plastic fibers. DuPont, the US giant in chemical production, has recently joined the ranks of developing corn plastics. The company’s research also received US$19 million in financial support from the US Department of Energy.

According to statistics, each year about 100 million tons of plastic products are produced globally. Solving the pollution caused by these materials will cost a lot of social costs. If corn resin can successfully replace some of the packaging plastics, it is estimated that it will be worth US$10 billion a year. Market.

Today, many large companies are optimistic about this new environmentally friendly material. Coca-Cola used 500,000 disposable cups at the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics, all made of corn plastic. The famous Japanese electrical manufacturer, Sony Corporation, has been packing plastic discs with corn in plastic packaging for two years. In addition to corn, many other crops have been used to make plastics. The food science expert of the US Department of Agriculture recently declared that a new environment-friendly food packaging material is completely made of crushed strawberries, so it is very environmentally friendly and may replace traditional polyethylene plastic film and become food packaging plastic.