Bioplastics make up less than 5 percent of the millions of tonnes of plastic produced each year around the world, but as governments and consumers fret about the damage plastic is doing to the world’s oceans, scientists are experimenting by converting materials from cactus to shrimp shells and human waste into alternative greener plastics.
“The whole world is changing; people are starting to ask for this,” said Scott Munguia, founder of Mexican company BIOFASE. The main obstacle is the cost of producing bioplastics, he noted.
Based in Michoacan state at the center of Mexico’s avocado industry, the world’s largest, BIOFASE uses tonnes of stones a day discarded by processors of the fruit to produce its drinking straws and cutlery.
Industry experts say bioplastics - which are made with renewable, organic materials - have twin benefits: making use of waste to create products that are potentially quicker and easier to dispose of than traditional fossil fuel-based plastics.
But not all bioplastics are as environmentally friendly as they sound, say scientists and industry insiders. Some contain high levels of traditional plastic, and depending on their uses and components, may not be biodegradable or compostable, making disposal a challenge.
Reuters.com reports on plastic production doubling over the next 20 years, compounding worries over the 8 million to 15 million tonnes of plastic the United Nations says are already being dumped into the ocean each year.
