Corn plastic?

[IamBlair]

Hey guys - have any of you heard of this? I hadn't until today, when I read on the internal staff website for the insurance company that I work for that they're now selling corn mugs with our logo on them (for staff, not to customers, that's weird).

But check it out - mugs made of corn plastic!
http://cornmug.com/

We have to get some Nerdfighter corn mugs going!

[BSmith]

I'm betting that corn plastic is just as bad for the environment (in terms of lifecycle CO2) as corn based ethanol. Corn is really an unethical base stock for hydrocarbons because of the land use and food supply impacts that result.

[kassandra/sabelmouse]

that was my first thought too.

[IamBlair]

Well, not according to their website (hooray propoganda).
http://cornmug.com/corn-university.html
"Did you know that PLA Plastic is one of the only plastic products with net zero emissions? This means that the carbon gasses they emit while decomposing are exactly equal to the carbon gasses consumed by the plant material that made them. This is just one of the many great reasons why PLA Plastic is good for the environment!"
As for land use/food supply, I'd have to take a very capitalist stance on that, which is that whoever is growing the corn for plastic clearly wants to, and nobody can tell them to grow food instead.

I just thought they were cool mugs.

[nerdochaos]

I've heard of corn plastic, we had a big presentation on it at our school a few years ago. I live in an 'ethanol' state so there is a lot of encouragement regarding corn based products. I'd agree with your stance on "it's their land, we can't tell them what to grow." We have to remember that it's not purely edible 'corn-on-the-cob' corn, it's field corn, so it's going to be processed into something that's puffed, something that's not great for you, like sweetened puffed cereal, or cheese puffed stuff. And if it's not turned into that, it may be used for animal feed, ethanol, or any other corn based food product, like alcohol, syrup, or starch. So, if they aren't going to use it for a healthy food product, why not use it for plastic if it will eventually help the environment anyway? I understand the whole 'people need food' thing, but we can't make anyone grow anything they don't want too.

[Samantha Garrett]

I agree totally. If people have to starve because of this plastic that is so much better for the environment then it's not worth it.

[IamBlair]

LOL. I agree, people probably shouldn't starve because of plastic.

But I'd hope that removing corn syrup or corn puffed cereals from someone's diet isn't enough to make them starve.

Also keep in mind that there's no chance that ALL CORN would somehow be used for corn plastic. Obviously there is still a much bigger market for corn's other uses, so there's no way corn plastic would wipe out those industries. And I certainly wasn't implying that it should!

[Groovy Jones]

In San Luis Obispo, CA (ironically right across the stree from the mission there) is a store called the Hemp Shack. They had a hemp skateboard. And a little display about how awesome, strong, and durable hemp is as a building material too.

[IamBlair]

Yeah, I don't know too much about hemp, but I had a shirt from the Vancouver Aquarium that was made of hemp. It was blue. *shrug* It was a shirt like any other, really.
Then again, I don't know much about corn plastic. I just thought it was nifty.

[Groovy Jones]

It's along the same lines of thinking, "Hey is what we're doing working and if not let's try something different like this".

[IamBlair]

Agreed. I think hemp products have been around for a long time but never really caught on as a popular thing mostly because of the drug associations most people make...
Then again, I think usually these sorts of things take a long time to catch on with the public at large (if ever).