CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — Target offers shoppers an unusual message about its gift cards at some stores, advising that they are biodegradable. “Just make sure you spend them first,” the displays conclude.
This isn’t just a marketing gimmick. Plastics made from corn and other plants are carving a tiny niche from the market for conventional petroleum-based plastics and being touted as green alternatives for everything from bulk food containers to lipstick tubes and clothing fiber — as well as gift cards.
So-called “bioplastics” offer the world a way to wean itself off oil, and most biodegrade to varying degrees. But their makers’ green argument is complex, and environmentalists are cautious in their support.
Manufacturing bioplastics produces carbon dioxide, which contributes to global warming. The materials are made from crops — corn, switchgrass, sugar cane, even sweet potatoes — that require land and water to grow. Some sound alarms because genetically modified organisms are used to spur the fermentation that creates them. And recycling them presents still other pitfalls.
They also can cost three times more than conventional plastics. Yet, until bioplastics expand beyond their current tiny fraction of the overall plastics market, the road to popularity is expected to be rough.
“It’s almost a chicken-and-egg scenario,” said David Cornell of the Association of Postconsumer Plastic Recyclers. “It might someday reach that critical mass, but it has to happen very quickly, because in the meantime it can be a nuisance for us.”
Bioplastics’ main benefit would be to reduce from 10 percent the share of U.S. petroleum consumption that goes into plastic. The types that are biodegradable also could help compensate for the country’s slow progress in recycling — only about 6 percent of plastic made in the U.S. was recycled in 2005, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Bioplastics also lack toxins like polyvinyl chloride that have raised health concerns and led California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger this month to sign legislation banning chemicals called phthalates from toys and baby products.
“This is a promising new technology that faces some challenges,” said Mike Schade of the Center for Health, Environment &Justice, a Falls Church, Va.-based nonprofit. “But we don’t view them as insurmountable, if the industry is willing to face them head-on.”
The market’s newest entrant is Mirel, from Cambridge-based Metabolix Inc. It more easily biodegrades than rival materials and, unlike others, can break down in a backyard compost bin. Its first consumer application came in July when Target Corp. began using it in gift cards at 129 stores. Metabolix is talking with potential clients about dozens more uses for Mirel, from razor blade handles to a coating for disposable coffee cups.
Agricultural processor Archer Daniels Midland Co. provides corn feedstock for making Mirel, which requires genetically engineered bacteria to aid in fermentation.
The most widely used bioplastic, NatureWorks — a product of a subsidiary of Minnesota-based Cargill Inc. — also is corn-based and biodegradable. Some of the corn that goes into it is modified, raising environmental concerns on the sourcing end, but the company notes that protein from the corn is destroyed in processing. NatureWorks already is used in dozens of products, including water bottles — an application unsuited to Mirel, which isn’t transparent.
No figures are available on overall bioplastics production, but bioplastics makers acknowledge the products occupy a tiny niche in the global plastics market, which totals $250 billion and produces 360 billion pounds a year. By comparison, the 300 million-pound capacity of NatureWorks’ Nebraska production plant is less than one-tenth of 1 percent of the market total.
For most biodegradable bioplastics, including NatureWorks, an industrial compost plant is recommended — facilities that are few and far between. Metabolix says Mirel will decompose in a backyard compost within two months and about twice as slowly in soil, rivers, lakes or the ocean. But very few Americans compost, and most who do try not to include even paper products, let alone unfamiliar bioplastics.
“The sustainability concept is taking hold broadly, including in the corporate sector,” said Betty McLaughlin of the Container Recycling Institute, a nonprofit encouraging greater materials recovery and recycling. “But these materials face a long road gaining acceptance.”
A major bump on that road will be their cost. But, in another chicken-and-egg paradox, growing the market for bioplastics is key to bringing down their price, industry leaders said. NatureWorks says its production costs are just 10 percent to 20 percent above those of conventional plastics. Companies buying Mirel pay about $2.50 a pound, compared with 70 cents to 90 cents for petroleum-based resin, although the price difference is expected to shrink as quantities grow and oil prices rise.
Tamara Nameroff, acting director of the American Chemical Society’s Green Chemistry Institute, said being as good as the product it replaces is not good enough for any green product, “even if you’ve proved you can make it environmentally friendly.”
“You have to show a cost advantage to what it’s replacing,” she said. “The idea that people just want to purchase environmentally friendly products has been demonstrated in some markets, but not universally.”
Though most consumers lack the patience to sort out all the arguments, environmental friendliness can sell. Ralph DiMatteo, 48, of Painesville Township, Ohio, said after learning Sam’s Club gift cards are made of NatureWorks plastic that he would buy them as holiday gifts.
“I don’t spend a lot of time researching these kinds of things, but if something is presented to me properly to show how my effort can make a difference for the environment, I’m willing to pay a couple extra cents,” DiMatteo said.
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