Bioplastics: Business Week Misses the Mark on Mirel

There are a lot of problems with PLA - If we made all of the plastic disposable items used in the world every year out of PLA, it would take one hundred million tons of corn to make it. That would lead to mass starvation in the third world, as that represents at least 10% of the world\’s grain supply. Also, in landfills, PLA exudes methane when it decomposes-and methane is a potent greenhouse gas. It also takes a huge amount of diesel to grow, fertilize, ship, and process this corn. As a practical matter, it is also not recyclable. The alternative? Oxo-biodegradable plastics. See biogreenproducts.biz for full information. -Tim Dunn

Yes, Mr Author, try not to expose your cynicism more than your opinion is worth. After I researched Metabolix, in my view they might not be at the stage of Mass Production across all plastics applications and solve all the problems associated with plastics, but they have the R&D to evolve and improve what is unique to this big industry.

Agreed with Paul. After reading the BW article, I started doing some research into the company and it sounds promising. Let's be honest; anything is better than what we're doing to the environment, and at the very least, you have to give credit to those who are at least trying to minimize their carbon footprint.

Hmmm, it chopped the end off my post!

Here is the rest ....

.... Also starch based plastics consume 2190 kg of GHG per per tonne(1000 kg) of plastic whilst the plants are growing.

"Maybe Mirel can be made some day from switchgrass and oilseed"
That'one day' is a long way off, they won't be producing Mirrel commercially until mid-2009 at the earliest, and there is still A LOT of research needed on the in-plant method.

"It seems to make a lot of sense for waste dumped at sea, and the U.S. military is studying use of the material as a liner that is thrown overboard"
There have been 'safe' water soluble plastics available for years, PVOH and bioplastic from Plantic will both dissolve in water in times from minutes to days.

"I’m all for developing technology that solves the plastics’ hydrocarbon and solid waste issues. But we have seen too many hollow marketing promises with

biodegradable plastics and not enough real technology. I applaud Metabolix, but really wish Business Week had put a little more effort into their report"
The press cannot cover every issue, that focus of that article is the guy that created Metabolix, anyone can search the web for Metabolix and find tonnes more information, they can go to the Metabolix Website and see how Mirrel performs from various perspectives.

There are many sites dedicated to coverage of bioplastics and bioplastics manufacturers too.

Re: Mirrel

I am an investor in 'green' technologies, and have been researching in this area including bioplastics since 2003, I do research every evening to keep up with developments.

"It turns out the story is really just a tout for startup company: Metabolix"
On the contrary, I found it an interesting insight into Metabolix, with much that has not appeared in analyst coverage or other press.

"The rest of the bioplastics industry is largely dismissed by BW with the comment “rival bioplastics must be incinerated or composted at high temperatures.”
Yes your right there, and they are wrong, as it is only Natureworks PLA that needs high temperatures to make it compost within the 90 days required to certify it as compostable, BUT it will compost in home compost heaps over a longer period, aledgedly up to twice as long, which is still way better than plastic which never composts, even with degradable additives in it( then it just turns into plastic dust, even worse for the environment)


"The Metabolix plastic, trademarked Mirel, will decompose if it is simply tossed in a home compost heap or dumped at sea”.
That's right, have you not seen the huge plastic pool in the pacific?

"Wow, here we go again. To make this work, we have to dump our plastic waste in a compost heap in our backyard. Sure, some folks will try it – until their dog rolls in it or odors start to waft in the window on a hot summer night. In my view, that’s a pretty flimsy basis on which to start a new industry."
Well here is a bit of news for you, compost bins are available for the kitchen and garden, they incorporate filters and seal tight when closed, there is no odour and for the dog to roll in it you would have to throw the dog in first.

"Mirel will be produced in a new factory that uses corn as a feedstock. Microbes eat glucose in corn and convert the sugar to a polymer. Corn supplies are already strained by world food demands and ethanol."
Here is a bit more news for you, Europe has 'set aside' land where the farmer is paid NOT to grow anything on it, an old EU plan that was put in place to help farmers earn enough money to live on, and prevent food surplus, the set aside law finishes soon, then a lot of land can be used for crops, whether for food, ethanol or bioplastics. Ever looked at non-food crops? it's not just ethanol that is using up land where food can be grown, what about tobacco, cut flowers, tropical plants, and there is a load more, and a lot of these are grown in HUGE amounts in poor countries, the countries that are complaining about food shortages and food prices, ethics are out the window there because these non-food crops earn a lot more money than growing food there. As for the argument that bioplastics are adding to food shortages, what a load of hype, total Bioplastics capacity(not production) are only at 500,000 tonnes P.A, with production of 200,000 tonnes and growing by 20% per annum, no way is that affecting food crops of many millions of tonnes. Global Wheat production alone is 524m tonnes per annum, corn is 766m tonnes per annum.

"The BW story shows the inventor of Mirel with switchgrass and oilseed, revealing the promotional nature of the article. As noted here, the future of bioplastics will not be in food crop feedstocks"
Algae is looking good for ethanol, maybe bioplastic too, but as each plant produces starch with different sized particles there will still be a need for crop starch. Stanelco PLC use starch from potatoes grown on contaminated land in France, you cannot grow food crops there so the land is being used for bioplastic, the same will happen worldwide because there are many high-starch non-food plants that will grow where food crops won't grow, like the edge of the desert, where the plants will also help stop erosion.

"The new polymer will be priced at $2 a pound, more than double the currently inflated price for the commodity plastics used in packaging"
I doubt they will be able to sell at this inflated price, as everyone reading their prospectus can see they are inflating the price to make a HUGE profit, whereas other bioplastics companies are trying to get their prices below the petro-plastics prices, and economy of scale eis doing that for some now, and Metabolix will have to compete with them, they are hardly going to be competetive at double the price are they?. Also oil based plastics prices are NOT inflated, if you do some research on the profits made by polymer crackers making ethane from naptha you will see they are either at break-even or losing money, this is because the oil price went up so quick they could not pass on the price rises to their customers, hence in the last month there have been 20% rises in LDPE, HDPE, PE, PP, etc to get the manufacturers out of a loss making position.



When the oil bubble bursts, as it always has, commodity plastics prices will tumble once again, while corn is unlikely to drop significantly"
Wrong on those points, the difference (supported by tonnes of research on the web if you look) is that in the past the oil bubble was due to wars not shortages, in this case many oil producers have already reacked 'peak oil', the point where they then produce less oil as time goes on, until they run out. Just yesterday the oil chief of Nigeria announced they have enough oil to last 43 years, then its all gone, other countries including in the Middle East have passed 'peak oil', no significant new oil is being discovered, and may never be, this is what's behind the oil price rise, and with China and India plus other developing nations taking more and more oil, supply will no longer meet demand, even today the MAX that could be squeezed out is a few hundred thousand barrels, but to get the price down will take spare capacity of several million barrels a day, so the oil price is not in a bubble, but oil production is, and any bad news like hurricanes in the Gulf and you will see $150, then $175, then $200 a barrel.

Also take note of countries like Venezuela and Iran, they hate the USA and are keeping oil prices high to extract as much money from the USA as they can. This could potentially be viewed as state terrorism, because in reality Venezuela and Iran want to crush the USA financially, as terrorism clearly does not work, or work in their favour, but crushing the USA via a depreciated dollar is certainly working right now.


"There’s no mention in the article of how much energy it takes to produce Mirel – a major issue with ethanol-from-corn production"
It's all on the Metabolix website, and it's much lower than plastics, One study shows that "every pound of soy-based polymers produced instead of petroleum-based removes 2.1 pounds of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere". Another study shows that in manufacture, plant based plastics use 30% less energy and create just 25% of the greenhouse gases that fossil fuel plastics do. Also starch based plastics consume 2190 kg of GHG per