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Plastics From Potato Waste |
| Section: NATURAL SCIENCE / AT THE EDGE |
| Author: Robert Coleman |
| Publication: The world & I online |
| Issue Date: 6/1/1991 |
| Size: 1,241 Words, 8,233 Characters |
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The disparate worlds of potatoes and plastics may hold a solution to each other's problems.
Waste from potato processing adds up to more than 10 billion pounds annually in the United States alone. The total is growing, overloading present methods of disposal.
The nondegradable plastic waste fouling the environment--a more visible problem--is stimulating a rising demand for degradable plastics. Furthermore, the heightened awareness that plastics are made from a nonrenewable resource, petroleum, provides impetus for finding a way to make plastics from renewable sources.
While research into biodegradable plastics is proceeding on many fronts, one of the most promising approaches may be the one now being mastered at Argonne National Laboratory, in Argonne, Illinois. In concep...
. . .
...ic acid plastic will be developed more fully, in alliance with potential major users of the plastic.
Converting food waste high in starch or simple sugar into plastic products has great potential. Argonne is investigating potato and cheese whey wastes because they are quite high in carbohydrates and are available in large volume. Corn, sorghum, and wheat are other conversion candidates.
(818 of 8,233 characters)
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