Plastic bottle from plant waste developed
PURCHASE, N.Y. (UPI) -- PepsiCo says it has developed a plastic bottlemade completely of plant materials like switch grass, pine bark andcorn husks instead of petroleum.
In inventing what it calls the world's first plastic bottle createdentirely from plant-based, fully renewable resources, the company saidit had "cracked the code," the Los Angeles Times reported Tuesday.
At the molecular level, the new bottle is identical to existingplastic bottles made with polyethylene terephthalate resin, or PET.
The biggest difference is that making it does not require the use ofpetroleum, utilizing renewable plant materials instead.
The new bottle will be as strong and transparent as current bottles,being the chemical equal to the current PET plastic bottles, saidDenise Lefebvre, senior director of advanced research at PepsiCo.
The breakthrough was finding the correct fermentation process usingplant material, she said.
In making PET, the polyethylene makes up about 30 percent of the totalby weight. That part was already being made out of plant materials;what PepsiCo discovered was how to make the second part of PET, theterephthalate, out of plant waste, the Times reported.
"We've been the one to crack the code on that," Lefebvre said.
Combining the technologies allows for a bottle made entirely fromplants, she said.
Copyright 2011 by United Press International
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