[Winona] Plastic

[Ruth Marg]

There is a substitute for most of the plastic you are using if you know what to look for.  Our son, Professor Gregg Marg developed a product as his Doctoral when he was a Chemical Engineering student at Cornell U. in N.Y.  As a student he received no credit or patent.  Cargill and Dow Chemical were later involved in perfecting it.  In fact there is only one ingredient that has been added to his work.
I asked Gregg for the name and information on it.
Here is information from his letter.  
The plastic I worked on is called polyactic acid.  Cargill and Dow started a joint venture to manufacture it.  That venture has since become an independent company called NatureWorks ( yes, no space, it is one word) They had a  pilot facility in Savage, MN. which is on the south side of the cities between Shakopee and Burnsville.  Their large production plant is in Blair, Nebraska,.
The things that are made with this product are many, but what we might run into and use would be easily disposable (actually recyclable)silverwear and plates you might take on a picnic.  It has been used to make fabric for clothing or upholstery and for disposable diapers.  It can basically be used any place that polypropylene can be used.  Polypropylene can be identified by looking at the little recycle stamp on the bottom of plastic items, the little triangle made of arrows. If there is a PP below the triangle, the material is polypropylene.  Polylactic acid doesn't have its own symbol yet, but it could be used to replace all of the polypropylene now being used.  
Just thought this might be of interest to all the people writing about plastic.  The person that probable couldn't use the above product is someone like Paul and his Cover the World.  
Ruth Marg
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