“While most plastics have generally been produced from petroleum, that’s not an inherent requirement. Chemistry is chemistry, and it’s possible to grow many of the hydrocarbons we need. But crops are the things we are best at growing, and plastics made from crops can have problems. They tend to cost more, and unless we’re willing to accept impacts on our ability to grow food, pathways to bioplastics have to be pretty clever about their starting materials.
A new study led by Durham University’s Long Jiang, Abigail Gonzalez-Diaz, and Janie Ling-Chin lays out a pathway to making plastic bottles from waste organic material and CO2 captured from power plants. A thorough analysis of the economics shows this process could even be cost competitive for making things like plastic bottles.”
View the whole story here: https://arstechnica.com/science/2020/06/how-to-make-plastic-bottles-from-sugarcane-and-captured-co%E2%82%82/