[Winona] Plastic

[Anne Morse]

Ruth!
 
No way that Gregg developed PLA (polylactic acid).  That is awesome!!!!!   I
met Greg recently at a biomass conference in the western part of the state,
and he's great.
 
Congratulations on such a wonderful (and smart) son!
 
Anne Morse
 
-----Original Message-----
From: winona-bounces at mnforum.org [mailto:winona-bounces at mnforum.org] On
Behalf Of Ruth Marg
Sent: Thursday, March 29, 2007 4:15 PM
To: winona at mnforum.org
Subject: [Winona] Plastic


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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