Engineering Materials

at 4/7/2008 9:18:43 AM, Bioplastics said:
April 7, 2008 Dear Doug, Although I acknowledge some of your comments, I think it is necessary for scientists and plastics technologists to continue their work to develop and improve plastics based on bio-renewable sources. Recently Tom Friedman of the New York Times recently renamed his soon to be published book on Green business to "Hot, Flat and Crowded". And whether you aspire to the Global Warming theory, there is no argument that the population of the world is dramatically increasing, that we are depleting carbon based resources and we need to be looking at alternative sources. The New Technology committee of SPE has been a champion of the bio-based effort but recognize their shortcomings. As you know it takes years to develop commercially useful plastics materials and technology. We believe so strongly in the effort that we are establishing an inaugural conference on New Technology in three areas: Bio-renewable polymers, Nanotechnology and Alternative energy (Energy Storage) and have scheduled that conference for November 4-6 in Philadelphia. Please make your readers aware of that as well as our efforts at ANTEC 2008. Maggie Baumann G.H.Associates New Technology Committee –SPE 908-832-2207

at 5/7/2008 3:01:19 PM, PaulM said:
Bioplastics from Stanelco PLC are made from potato starch, the potatoes are grown on land that is no good for food crops, the potatoes are hardy industrial high-starch types, and for at least the last 10 years these potatoes from these farms have only been used for starch extraction, hence there is no impact on food crops. Also the potatoes used are much better than other starch crops such as corn/wheat/rice etc, because these potatoes give a yield of double that of the nearest other starch crop per hectare. The Bioplastics made by Stanelco PLC have been described by an industry expert as "some of the best in the world", as they are soft to the touch (unlike oil based plastics), very flexible(unlike PLA), have a high barrier to oxygen carbondioxide and water vapour(unlike PLA) Check them out here www.stanelcoplc.com They also just launched the worlds first biodegradable flexible tube(think cosmetics, toothpaste, etc), and a CD/DVD tray. Bags made from Stanelco Bioplastics can be purchased from Indaco Manufacturing (in the USA and Canada) under the Bag-To-Nature brand, also check with them on the availability of carrier bags made from the same Bioplastic. www.indaco.ca Cheers, Paul

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