Re:Corn Plastic: Polylactic acid (PLA)

[Guest guest]

Hi Lana,

Last Spring, I wrote a short article about PLA plastic for a Web site

that I built just before Earth Day:

http://www.earthcareguide.com/steep.html

A local coffee shop in Madison, Wisconsin is using PLA plastic cups

for their cold drinks. I was curious about what happened to the cups

after they were disgarded—so I did some research.

I intended to keep adding green stories to the site and create RSS

feeds but it became impossible to keep it up myself.

Most PLA plastic is made from GMO corn so it can't be composted for

organic soil.

In addition, the commercial composters required to compost PLA

plastic are not available in most cities (140 degrees for 9 days). As

a result, most PLA plastic ends up in landfills.

Ideally, plastic needs to be " backyard compostable. "

I'm surprised that companies such as Seventh Generation are not

making backyard compostable plastic given that there's a thick layer

of plastic in the Pacific ocean that's as large as the United States

(I put the floating garbage story on the home page of the site I

built: http://www.earthcareguide.com).

Jo Fahey

Corn Plastic: Polylactic acid (PLA)

Posted by: " Lana Gibbons " lana.m.gibbons@... wiredpsyche

Sat Oct 18, 2008 10:29 am (PDT)

So I've been really skeptical of these new corn based plastics. I hate

plastic as a rule.

But then I was reading something that disclosed the chemical name...

PLA...

PolyLACTIC ACID.

I *like* lactic acid. It is perhaps my favorite fermentation

byproduct.

So... Any thoughts on this newfangled plastic?

-Lana