thedailywhat:
Green Initiative of the Day: It was announced yesterday that PepsiCo will soon begin manufacturing a biodegradable bottle composed entirely of plant material — this despite Coca-Cola Co.’s recent assertion that it would be years before a 100% plant-based bottle could be produced.
Materials used include switch grass, pine bark, and corn husks. PepsiCo plans to eventually begin incorporating organic leftovers from its food business.
According to PepsiCo senior VP of advanced research Rocco Papalia, the way the new PET bottles feel and protect their contents is indistinguishable from their plastic siblings. “We’ve cracked the code,” he is quoted as saying. “It’s a beautiful thing to behold.”
[ap via csm.]
This is a huge deal. While it’s still a mass produced bottle, it’s evidence that a large corporation can innovate towards a direction where the product can have a complete life cycle that includes a natural degradation process. As most of what we produce, plastics take an un-natural lifespan to decay… and even then, what was decaying wasn’t anything the Earth’s natural biosystems could collect and re-use on it’s own (at least within a reasonable time frame). And if it’s true, that they’ve created something biodegradable, we are another small step towards becoming as efficient as our nature counterparts, a system that produces no un-usable waste.
Now, my less optimistic nit-picky qualms:
While named third in the list of the bottle’s manufactured contents, I predict that a large portion of the bottle’s contents is corn husks. Farm production of corn is amassing it’s own set of environmental problems… mostly to maintain our culture’s fast food bingeing. Perhaps, Pepsi’s next step could be lessening it’s use of corn in it’s product altogether, bottle and soda contents.
And now the thing I’m stuck with is why isn’t all of the soda’s contents, the thing we ingest, as natural it’s container?
(Source: thedailywhat, via fuckyeahpackaging)
![thedailywhat:
Green Initiative of the Day: It was announced yesterday that PepsiCo will soon begin manufacturing a biodegradable bottle composed entirely of plant material — this despite Coca-Cola Co.’s recent assertion that it would be years before a 100% plant-based bottle could be produced.
Materials used include switch grass, pine bark, and corn husks. PepsiCo plans to eventually begin incorporating organic leftovers from its food business.
According to PepsiCo senior VP of advanced research Rocco Papalia, the way the new PET bottles feel and protect their contents is indistinguishable from their plastic siblings. “We’ve cracked the code,” he is quoted as saying. “It’s a beautiful thing to behold.”
[ap via csm.]
This is a huge deal. While it’s still a mass produced bottle, it’s evidence that a large corporation can innovate towards a direction where the product can have a complete life cycle that includes a natural degradation process. As most of what we produce, plastics take an un-natural lifespan to decay… and even then, what was decaying wasn’t anything the Earth’s natural biosystems could collect and re-use on it’s own (at least within a reasonable time frame). And if it’s true, that they’ve created something biodegradable, we are another small step towards becoming as efficient as our nature counterparts, a system that produces no un-usable waste.
Now, my less optimistic nit-picky qualms:
While named third in the list of the bottle’s manufactured contents, I predict that a large portion of the bottle’s contents is corn husks. Farm production of corn is amassing it’s own set of environmental problems… mostly to maintain our culture’s fast food bingeing. Perhaps, Pepsi’s next step could be lessening it’s use of corn in it’s product altogether, bottle and soda contents.
And now the thing I’m stuck with is why isn’t all of the soda’s contents, the thing we ingest, as natural it’s container?](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_li5swlUIZF1qzpwi0o1_500.jpg)
