#3: Bioplastic Boom

From: KQED
Series: QUEST: Recycling in America
Length: 04:40

Companies like Coca-Cola, Pepsi, and Heinz ketchup have determined that plastic made from plants — not oil — makes sense both for the environment and for business. The growing demand has meant a boom in the bioplastic industry. Could this mean the end of the plastic bottle as we know it? Read the full description.

Piece Audio

Playing: #3: Bioplastic Boom
From: KQED

Quest-recycling-bioplastic_packaging640-300x169_small Companies like Coca-Cola, Pepsi, and Heinz ketchup have determined that plastic made from plants — not oil — makes sense both for the environment and for business. The growing demand has meant a boom in the bioplastic industry. Could this mean the end of the plastic bottle as we know it?

More from KQED

Caption: E-waste circuit boards, Credit: QUEST

#4: E-Waste Programs Reach Milestone (03:46)
From: KQED

Every year, Americans throw away more than 300 million outdated lap tops, cell phones, printers, broken computer monitors and old television sets. But only 18-percent of all ...

Caption: City recycling worker, Credit: QUEST

#2: Revisiting Mandatory Recycling (04:21)
From: KQED

Until very recently Philadelphians recycled a dismal five-percent of their trash. But all that began to change a few years ago when the city stepped up its mandatory ...

#1: Boom Times For The Recycling Industry (04:54)
From: KQED

Here's one silver lining to a slow economy: High recycling rates. Americans are wasting far less, and recycling far more. Nowhere is the trend as strong as in California. As ...

Voice of a Young Voter: "I Can't Get Medical Insurance" (:31)
From: KQED

Steffan Ireland of Tacoma, Wash. talked with KPLU about healthcare.

Voice of a Young Voter: "They Won't Get Out of My Birth Control" (:17)
From: KQED

Kyndall Goss of Tacoma, Wash. talked with KPLU about healthcare.

Voice of a Young Voter: "No Gay Marriages Allowed in My State" (:34)
From: KQED

Josh Morrissette of Tacoma, Wash. talked with KPLU about gay marriage.

Voices of Young Voters: Oregon's Mallory Livingston, Michael Fussell, Karisa Mueller and Hayley H... (03:48)
From: KQED

Young voters could play a major role in this presidential election. But what issues are most important to those under the age of 30?

Voices of Young Voters: Oregon's Anne-Marie Eiguren, Shanel Swan, Spencer Swearingen and Julia Ra... (03:46)
From: KQED

Young voters could play a major role in this presidential election. But what issues are most important to those under the age of 30?

Voices of Young Voters: Oregon's Ashley Williams, Dominc Camaroto and Meryl Six (03:45)
From: KQED

Young voters could play a major role in this presidential election. But what issues are most important to those under the age of 30?

Caption: Tyler Carter, Credit: Ian Hill/KQED

Voice of a Young Voter: How Parents Can Influence the Vote (:51)
From: KQED

Tyler Carter, 20, of Ukiah, Calif., talked with KQED’s Lillian Mongeau about how his father's opinions make him feel about politics.

Piece Description

Broadcast History

Aired locally on NET Radio in July 2011.

Transcript

CORN FIELD AMBIENT :03

STAND UP: This is the sound of plastic being made…3

CORN FIELD AMBIENT :02

STAND UP: In this cornfield, dark green stalks come up almost to my chest and wind around the hill in perfect rows. This field will produce thousands of bushels of corn to be turned into cattle feed, corn syrup, ethanol, and …plastic. 13

INGEO PELLETS :03

STUDIO: This might sound like corn, too, but it’s actually millions of small plastic pellets being blasted through long tubes into gleaming steel silos at a processing facility near Blair, Nebraska. 10

INGEO FACTORY :01

The pellets are plastic resin – the raw material for everything from food containers to carpet. For the last 10 years a company here called Nature Works? has used corn, instead of oil or natural gas, to make bio-plastic. Nature Works? is partially owned by the ag giant, Cargill, and it makes more bioplastic right now...
Read the full transcript

Intro and Outro

INTRO:

Recently, companies like Coca-Cola, Pepsi, and Heinz ketchup have determined that plastic made from plants -- not oil -- makes sense both for the environment and for business. The growing demand has meant a boom in the bioplastic industry. Could this mean the end of the plastic bottle as we know it? Grant Gerlock of NET News from Nebraska reports.

OUTRO:

Listen to other Recycling in America radio stories on our website.