Using Corn-Plastic as an Eco-Friendly Packaging Material

utilise Corn-Plastic as an Eco-Friendly Packaging Material Introduction For the purpose of this project, I chose to engage sheets of corn-plastic as a wrapper for Big Kahuna Burger. The wrapper would be by inches and less than a millimeter thick. The reason I chose sheets over boxes was because sheets stinkpot be stacked by the thousands making shipping more economic and producing less material in land fills. The material of this wrapper is corn-plastic, or by its scientific name, polylactic acid.Polylactic acid or polylactide (PLA) is a thermoplastic resin aliphatic polyester derived from renewable resources, such as cornstarch, tapioca roots, chips or starch, or sugarcane. This is an environmentally practical material for an assortment of reasons It is perishable, non-harmful to people or the environment and it comes from natural, renewable resources. The United States uses 20. 8 million barrels of oil per day, 10 share of which goes solely to the production of conventional p lastic such as polythene terephthalate (PET) sources CIA World Factbook, Jewell.Bioplastics like corn plastic, however, dont require oil and, as a bonus, their manufacture releases fewer toxins and greenhouse gases. (Howstuffworks. com) Pre-Production Harvesting of corn requires fossil fuels to sacking tractors and other machines Fossil fuels required to ship to factories. Production First, the harvested corn proceeds is soaked and ground so that the endosperm can be separated from the gluten and fiber. This quantity is typical in grain crop harvesting, too.Next, stirrs add enzymes to the starchy endosperm, which converts the endosperm into a simple sugar called dextrose. Then, the addition of bacterial cultures causes the sugar to ferment into lactic acid in the same way brewers use fermentation to produce beer. The resulting acid consists of lactide molecules, which bond into long chains called polymers. At the end of this process, bioplastics producers collect pellets of po lylactic acid plastic, which can then be spun off into fibers or smooth to take just about any form. (Howstuffworks. com). Low energy and taint in manufacturing process. Distribution Due to thin sheets, thousands of sheet wrappers can be shipped in a single box, making distribution highly efficient. little fossil fuels used in the distribution process. Utilization Although is a biodegradable material, it provides a stable water proof protection for food. Wrapping sandwiches of variant sizes with the same wrapper as apposed to having different sized boxes for each heart and soul less material used. Disposal Takes a month in a high-humidity composting environment at 140 degrees Fahrenheit to decompose. Cant be recycled with PLE plastic. After decomposition, turns back into its original form as earth that has zero affect on the environment and no pollution. Cons of Bioplastic It can hardly be decomposed in commercial decomposition plants that require large amounts of energy. Ca nnot be recycled with fastness plastic. A small amount of bioplastic in a traditional cycle plant can contaminate a much larger voice of reusable plastic, preventing it from being usable. Commercial composters in the Northwestern United States only accept bioplastics from food service operations, not households. (This is not a problem for big Kahuna Burger. Solution PLA wrappers at Big Kahuna Burger leave be given up of in a special bin and then sent to a commercial composter. This may cost more, but as the bioplastic industry grows and matures, cheaper and easier composting will be available. References What is corn plastic? How Stuff Works. July 2011.