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Plastic from plants (Video)
csiro.au — This video explains how scientists have created an environmentally friendly plastic from wheat. (2:00)
cosmikdebris- 341 diggs
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- CressCrowbits, on 04/30/2008, -2/+23In other news, the cost of bread increases by 30%, millions starve.
- ToadLeg, on 04/30/2008, -2/+2That's because of government subsidies to farms to not grow food, wars in parts of the world preventing them from growing food, and food distribution problems. The problem is not that we can't grow food; we have the ability to grow plenty of it. If you've been paying attention to the oceans, it's clear that we need to find a way to stop using non-biodegradable plastic on the large scale that we do today.
- CressCrowbits, on 04/30/2008, -1/+5First step: producers to stop wrapping everything up in layer upon layer of utterly unnecessary plastic packaging. That will go a lot further.
- ToadLeg, on 04/30/2008, -3/+1That may work, but it might be a lot more convincing to say "here's an alternative that does not have the same problems." This new "wheat plastic" will probably be more expensive than petroleum based plastic, but at least now governments can somewhat ban non-biodegradable plastic and not have to say "ok, now everything has to not come in a sterile container, and everything must not be disposable."
Plastic bags are obvious first things to use biodegradable plastic, because they are usually disposable (non-biodegradable plastics may still be preferable for archiving). I think that larger things made of rigid plastics may still be able to use this kind of plastic, but just be covered with non-biodegradable plastic so that it does not degrade.
This is assuming, of course, that this plastic is what they're claiming it is. - notadiggtard, on 04/30/2008, -0/+1You're right!More damn idiocy.Try thinking it through.Amount of plastic used each year vs amount of land,water,fertilizer to grow FOOD to turn into grocery bags.Result-
A.Not possible to make a dent.
B.Another disaster to try(see ethanol).
Why not
A.Have incentives to use less.
B,Recycle what we do use. - ToadLeg, on 04/30/2008, -2/+1@notadiggtard: The "food shortage" is artificial and ethanol has little effect on food production. An article about this is a few above this one: http://digg.com/world_news/Understanding_the_Globa ...
- ToadLeg, on 04/30/2008, -3/+1That may work, but it might be a lot more convincing to say "here's an alternative that does not have the same problems." This new "wheat plastic" will probably be more expensive than petroleum based plastic, but at least now governments can somewhat ban non-biodegradable plastic and not have to say "ok, now everything has to not come in a sterile container, and everything must not be disposable."
- CressCrowbits, on 04/30/2008, -1/+5First step: producers to stop wrapping everything up in layer upon layer of utterly unnecessary plastic packaging. That will go a lot further.
- Velvolver, on 04/30/2008, -0/+2Eh, wrong there. It's not from lack of it, it's greed.
- ToadLeg, on 04/30/2008, -2/+2That's because of government subsidies to farms to not grow food, wars in parts of the world preventing them from growing food, and food distribution problems. The problem is not that we can't grow food; we have the ability to grow plenty of it. If you've been paying attention to the oceans, it's clear that we need to find a way to stop using non-biodegradable plastic on the large scale that we do today.
- Acronym, on 04/30/2008, -3/+3that's awesome
- robuk24, on 04/30/2008, -4/+4not a good idea!
- notadiggtard, on 04/30/2008, -0/+1It doesn't have to be a good idea,it just has to make people feel like they are virtuous for doing it.Period.
- Adamande, on 04/30/2008, -2/+13The whole biofuel-tragedy has obviously not taught us to use food as food, so let's turn it into plastic...
- ToadLeg, on 04/30/2008, -1/+3Biofuel is not the reason for the "food shortage" There's no real shortage of food, just people who are unwilling to grow it to keep prices high, and places that are too unstable to grow their own food and too far away to cheaply ship it to.
- Adamande, on 04/30/2008, -0/+3Actually, there's a huge shortage of food, and there has been as long as I've been alive. Millions of people in the third world starve every single day and they have been doing so for decades. "According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, more than 25,000 people died of starvation every day in 2003,[1] and as of 2001 to 2003, about 800 million people were chronically undernourished" (wiki)
- Adamande, on 04/30/2008, -0/+3That was badly formulated. I wasn't supposed to say millions of people starve every day. I was about to change it, but somehow messed up the editing. Sorry for that. Just forget that sentence and go with the numbers from UN.
- ToadLeg, on 04/30/2008, -0/+2"starve", "are starving" - what was meant was understandable
Yes, people have been needlessly starving for decades, but it is not because we are unable to produce enough food, and the new biofuel production has little effect on the "shortage". Interestingly, an article on digg a few stories above this one is about this very issue: http://digg.com/world_news/Understanding_the_Globa ... - anonymiau, on 04/30/2008, -0/+1bury
- ToadLeg, on 04/30/2008, -0/+2"starve", "are starving" - what was meant was understandable
- Adamande, on 04/30/2008, -0/+3That was badly formulated. I wasn't supposed to say millions of people starve every day. I was about to change it, but somehow messed up the editing. Sorry for that. Just forget that sentence and go with the numbers from UN.
- Adamande, on 04/30/2008, -0/+3Actually, there's a huge shortage of food, and there has been as long as I've been alive. Millions of people in the third world starve every single day and they have been doing so for decades. "According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, more than 25,000 people died of starvation every day in 2003,[1] and as of 2001 to 2003, about 800 million people were chronically undernourished" (wiki)
- WraTH017, on 04/30/2008, -0/+1Sure, biofuels are the problem.
People forget that The biggest waste of food crops come from livestock feed. We need fuels. We don't necessarily need meat. Meat is luxury, sorry. Fuel is hardly one... Society could survive without meat, but not so much without fuel. - VitriolAndAngst, on 04/30/2008, -0/+2Is it too much of a conspiracy theory to note that the whole "bio-fuel causing food scarcity" issue benefits the groups causing the food scarcity? Of all the BioMass that is better -- the industry chooses corn that is the least efficient and uses the most fossil fuels to produce.
We also have a fuel shortage and we've got a war, that uses lots of fuel in the middle east and meanwhile -- how many refining plants have been built or even replaced the ones that have been destroyed the past 8 years? Zero.
Gee, the whole Ethanol thing benefits ADM, and Big Oil, oh, and the well invested friends of BushCo. Then, the Environmentalists and "unrational" Lefites out there get tarred and feathered with this scam. Their might be some Democrats backing Ethanol but there are also some Democrats who backed the war -- in both cases, they need to be replaced by new Democrats. But to say that Ethanol is an invention of the left is absurd. Mega-farms and Big Energy benefit from this scam.
The energy crunch in general is raising food prices -- as is changing weather patterns that MIGHT have something to do with Global Warming. Now, the strange weather may also create conditions that allow things like Wheat Rust to infect more plants because plants are more stressed -- it could just be bad luck. Corn is just one small part of this issue -- but the people backing corn for fuel WANT alternative energy discredited. "Alternative" anything is a big category -- so, the idea that "alternatives don't work" only works with morons.
- ToadLeg, on 04/30/2008, -1/+3Biofuel is not the reason for the "food shortage" There's no real shortage of food, just people who are unwilling to grow it to keep prices high, and places that are too unstable to grow their own food and too far away to cheaply ship it to.
- madpuppy, on 04/30/2008, -2/+0great idea.........if it was made with weeds
- bassik, on 04/30/2008, -1/+8substitute wheat starch with industrial hemp starch and then you've really got something.
- chewbie, on 04/30/2008, -0/+4yupp. Hemp doesn't need all that attention as it tends to grow faster than the plants around it, stealing their sun
- Velvolver, on 04/30/2008, -0/+1so is it really a "weed" then?
- chewbie, on 04/30/2008, -0/+4yupp. Hemp doesn't need all that attention as it tends to grow faster than the plants around it, stealing their sun
- regeya, on 04/30/2008, -2/+16Apparently a few people haven't bothered reading this...the starch used is from the straw, not from the seed. If this causes the wheat price to go up, then you'll know that speculative traders are likely all making money on oil-based products and don't want the gravy train to end...and as someone else pointed out, hemp could be used to make plastic. If Kentucky farmers were ever forced to stop growing tobacco (a good idea imho) and if some sense were ever knocked into our country's drug czar (not likely imho; they enforce drug laws but can't tell the difference between hemp and marijuana?) this would be a great crop.
Also, now that cellulosic ethanol production is likely going to get some love from those subsidies that made corn ethanol attractive (along with a subsequent cut in said corn subsidy) we'll have to ask ourselves if the straw is more valuable as a fuel stock or a construction stock.
Although I don't feel too good about this direction we're taking We overuse plastic to the extreme, and could curtail our plastic use quite a bit. Sure, that's already starting, but we need to accelerate that.- Velvolver, on 04/30/2008, -1/+4Excellent, cut down on oil use and use a once unused part of the plant. Win/win. Except win/win isn't profitable for certain groups in power:/
- chewbie, on 04/30/2008, -0/+5It's not all win/win because that straw can be fed to cows. Price of beef ... shooting up
- notadiggtard, on 04/30/2008, -0/+1Too bad there are no"unused parts".Everybody keeps thinking we will find something that gets thrown away now to magically turn into energy or plastic.The truth is the only true "waste"is what goes into landfills and down toilets.That's all you have to work with.Now get busy,Edison!
- atact88, on 04/30/2008, -0/+5Where does it say it's made from the straw?
- anonymiau, on 04/30/2008, -0/+3Yeah, dude. Where does it say it's made from the straw? I can't find that either and I've read the transcript three times now and seen the video. For all I know you might be right, but they don't mention that in the video at all....
- VitriolAndAngst, on 04/30/2008, -0/+2There is also technology to use the non-edible parts of corn -- but you don't see any movement on that either. I have to wonder why.
- Velvolver, on 04/30/2008, -1/+4Excellent, cut down on oil use and use a once unused part of the plant. Win/win. Except win/win isn't profitable for certain groups in power:/
- VitriolAndAngst, on 04/30/2008, -0/+2This uses the starch from the Wheat. Which tells me that a lot of sources of starch could be used -- perhaps all the food we throw out, or things like Yucca. This does not have to put pressure on food prices. Most years we are up to our eyeballs in more food than we can eat -- and our government pays farmers NOT to grow crops. The only limit on food right now is energy costs and bad weather. There are alternatives to using things like Natural Gas for fertilizer that we should be exploring right now.
But the people who can cause a food and energy crunch in this world, just so happen to be the groups who make the most money from it. - SketchyClown, on 04/30/2008, -0/+1The found last year how to make plastic from clay that is completely 100% biodegradeable, yet as strong as steel. It's made of layers of clay nanosheets and a water-soluble polymer that shares chemistry with white glue. But have they adopted this? No. And they will most likely not adopt this one either. ***** people are stupid and lazy.
- TripleNipple, on 04/30/2008, -0/+2People are not stupid, it's our governments and industry. The government needs to get behind it with financial incentives to get industry, which is driven by profit, to be punished for not using these new technologies and rewarding the ones that do.
- Darph.Bobo, on 05/01/2008, -0/+1That's simplistic thinking and demonstrates you clearly don't understand the big picture. If they invented practical teleportation today would you call people "stupid and lazy" because it wasn't in use 10 years from now?
Put your Xbox controller away, read some books and learn some history.
- beauley, on 05/01/2008, -0/+1Another waste of global food...
News ! Do we want to drive or eat...? We are seeing the results...worldwide.
http://www.socyberty.com/Economics/An-Abrupt-Reali ...
An Abrupt Reality: Fuel or Food.
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